


Maternal Interference

by Altiria



Series: Fem Harry Potter/One Piece Soulmate fic's [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, One Piece
Genre: F/M, Female Harry Potter, Hogwarts Seventh Year, Marineford Arc, Not Dumbledore Friendly, Rouge and Lily manipulating events in the afterlife, Soul Bond, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-10-28
Packaged: 2020-03-20 02:38:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 46,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18983506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Altiria/pseuds/Altiria
Summary: Rouge’s son is going to be executed, and there is nothing she can do about it. Lily’s daughter is fighting a war alone and has nothing to live for. Lily can’t accept that either, so she goes hunting for a way to save her daughter and ends up in front of Portgas D. Rouge. An agreement between them gives both their children a chance.





	1. Chapter 1

Rouge stood over her son, her only boy who’d never known her and grit her teeth in a fury. Her hair flared around her body twisting like snakeheads, yet there was no wind to move it. It acted through her emotions, which could not be contained.

Her baby boy, for years she'd been forced to watch abuse heaped upon him by the sheep of the world. The drunkard idiots who wouldn’t know their ass from their face and frankly sometimes she couldn’t even tell the difference with the shit they spewed.

For years she’d watched her son be told by ignorant bastards that he was worthless. That if he were ever discovered they’d keelhaul him, torture him, murder him. Her baby, her precious Ace was told again and again he was worth nothing.

So when he had the chance to prove he wasn’t by capturing a traitor she’d been unsurprised he’d jumped at the opportunity. He’d thrown himself into a hopeless chase even as she soundlessly screamed that he didn’t have to. Cried that his adoptive family would accept him even if he didn’t. Grabbed straight through his arms as she told him and again they loved him and would never blame him for Teach’s actions.

By the gods of the sea if only he could hear her, just once. She’d tell him how much she loved him, how much he was worth. How she could not be prouder of how kind he had turned out to be despite everything thrown at him. Her baby still loved, still protected, she was so so proud of him.

The non-existent wind around Rouge calmed. A hundred children dead because of the marines’ foolish attempt to capture her son. She would be forever grateful for Roger’s forethought into contacting Garp, for Roger sacrificing himself so his death could be a distraction; one she and Ace could use for achance to survive. Her only regret, while she lay on her death bed, was that she would not be able to see her son grow, that she could not protect him.

Soundless Rouge snarled in anger, it was always the marines. The marines then that caused her death, and now they had locked up her son like he was some sort of animal. Her son was going to be executed because of who his father was, for no other reason but that. They didn’t care that he was a pirate who had committed minimal crimes, an occasional bit of looting and a few accidental deaths in battle had been the worst he’d done. Not that it mattered the marines… they would have done this even if Ace had followed Garp’s words and had become a marine.

By the gods, Ace didn’t deserve this. Her son had never hurt an innocent. He’d saved children, had purposely avoided civilians when the marines ignored them, had gone out of his way to save others when he could. He was a good boy. The marines, those cursed beings only cared about what his death would symbolize. All they cared about was Roger, and though Rouge loved Roger with all her heart, right now a part of her cursed how much of a public figure he’d ended up as. If Roger had been a regular pirate Ace would not be in this situation. Ace wouldn’t be about to be executed before his adoptive family.

“Dammit,” Rouge’s nails bit into her hands, though they didn’t bleed. The dead couldn’t after all; there was no ‘life-blood’ left within her. She was nothing but a ghost unable to save her child. “Dammit, dammit, Dammit!” she swung on the place and punched a wall. Acted as if she could damage the blasted thing. She couldn’t; it didn’t even hurt, her hand passed straight through the wall. Another blatant slap in the face about her inability to change a thing.

“Excuse me?”

Rouge paid no attention to the voice, the woman that had spoken could not be talking to Rouge. After all, Rouge didn’t exist, and the living could not see her.

“Miss?”

She scrunched her nose and tried to punch the wall again. She failed and snarled at it.

“Hey!” a hand tapped her shoulder.

Rouge was not ashamed to say she screamed and jumped a foot in the air. Swinging around Rouge attempting to punch at the ‘thing’ that touched her for the first time since her death. The woman who had done so yelped and quickly dodged backward with a shaky unpracticed movement. As if at one point she’d been used to dodging projectiles but had not been a physical fighter. Rouge instinctively cataloged this assuming the woman had been a ranged fighter and hadn’t often been in involved in hand to hand combat. While a moment later Rouge had frozen up in her fighting stance because… someone had touched her.

The woman before her held up her arms defensively showing herself as unarmed. Which didn’t mean much they were dead after all. Not to mention in her own life while Rouge had fought with pistols, she could still fight unarmed. ‘Unarmed’ meant very little to her.

The woman herself had deep burning red hair quite a few shades darker than her light pink - which she’d never liked until Roger complimented it. Rouge had personally always wanted her mothers blood red hair; she thought her odd pink was ‘faded’ and not worth much. Ironically the woman before her could have passed for Rouge’s aunt before her untimely death; their hair was near about the same shade. It was the eye color that told Rouge this woman wasn’t her aunt, this woman’s eyes were an eerily glowing green and Rouge’s aunts had been chocolate brown like her own, like Ace’s.

On top of this, the woman’s clothing was beyond strange. She appeared to be wearing pajama’s of all things with deer on them. Rouge, of course, didn’t blame the woman for her choice in clothing. Rouge herself had died in a hospital gown from her pregnancy which left her eternally wearing the soft pink material with her back-end exposed.

“Hullo,” the woman greeted tentatively, “um, are you good?”

Rouge straightened herself and lowered her own hands in embarrassment. What was she doing in battle stance? She was dead, this woman couldn’t hurt her. She was being ridiculous.

“I’m fine,” she reported.

“Oh good,” the woman lowered her hands in relief, “I was a bit worried I’d make a poor first example, and I really didn’t want to do that you know? Especially since it’s you. I don’t interact with other dead people too much.”

“Indeed,” Rouge thought a bit bemused, “I haven’t interacted with any dead people.”

“No one?” the woman startled slightly, “well, that’s not too surprising, I guess. Most people choose to go ‘on’ when Death presents the option.”

Rouge inclined her head to that. She’d been given the same choice back when she’d first died. After dying she’d found herself in what she knew was the path into the Grand Line, the waterfall that moved up the red line to the unknown. Around it she’d been given a dozen ship options, Rouge had refused to take any of them. When faced with the prospect she’d turned back, she had a son to watch over, a baby that needed her.

“Personally I was at king’s cross… ah, that’s a train station.” ‘Water Seven?’ Rouge wondered as Lily continued, “Death gave my husband and me several train options, but I wanted to watch my daughter grow up. So we went back to follow her,” the woman’s expression grew cold in a way Rouge was intimately familiar with, a mothers fury, “It’s bloody well good that I did.”

Rouge couldn’t help but relax in the face of the familiar emotion. She made several jumps of logic thinking perhaps this woman's daughter was like her Ace. Suffering from the stupidity of others, from marines. “Is she in Impel Down as well?” she asked, glancing out of the cell walls behind the woman.

“No.” The woman shook her head sending the red locks swinging, “No, she’s… actually, that’s a bit of a complicated explanation. Perhaps we should introduce ourselves first, yeah?”

“I suppose,” there wasn’t much else Rouge could do but watch her son life slip away as he remained chained up in a cell. A proper conversation to get her mind off his fate, one to vent to was something she was in desperate need of.

“Portgas D. Rouge, a pleasure.” She held out her hand, and the woman quickly shook it.

“Lily Potter.”

Rouge recovered her hand, feeling it tingle quite bizarrely. How strange it was to finally have sensation in her hands due to Lily’s likewise dead state. Rouge had missed physical contact, a part of her quite wanted to tackle Lily into a comforting hug, if only to feel another person in her arms again. She resisted, barely.

“He’s your son?” Lily asked looking at Ace with an openly curious expression. Rouge followed Lily’s gaze to Ace who had bowed his head in an attempt at sleep. He’d allowed himself to fall limp hanging off the obsessive amount of chains keeping him still and weak. Rouge was glad he was resting, if only because Ace hadn’t slept for a single minute since he’d been captured. He was protecting himself, not allowing anyone to sneak up on him, in that, he was showing his strength. Rogue didn’t need to see it to know her boy was strong, he hadn’t even blinked at what Teach and his crew had done. Nor had he during the ‘bath’ the marines gave him when he’d arrived at Impel Down; a hose-down that had nearly ripped Ace’s skin off his bones due to the sheer force they’d used. Rouge had looked away, unable to watch that happen to her son.

“Yes, that’s my Ace,” Rouge smiled softly. He looked so peaceful in his sleep, Ace lost all the tension he carried while awake when he slept. It was an expression to this day Ace only did when away when Luffy had been around. For only with Luffy was Ace wholly unguarded. Though Whitebeard and his crew were coming close to earning the same.

“I’ve been hearing quite a bit about him,” Lily mused not moving closer, “a bunch of celebrity nonsense for the most part. I didn’t take it seriously, no more than I would listen to what they say about my daughter.” Lily spun on her foot and asked curiously, “Is he a good man?”

“Is my pirate son a good man?” Rouge asked in amusement, “that’s not something people typically ask.”

“I’m not typical,” Lily said with a light shrug then sobered, “I’m actually quite desperate.”

Rouge arched a brow eying the stranger, why was Lily here? Rouge hadn’t wondered yet, but she was wondering now. “I don’t understand.”

“Not a surprise, it’s not normal, none of this is.” Lily didn’t look away from Ace, Rouge felt herself tensing up wondering if the woman was a threat. “I heard about him in passing, first from the papers. The world Government of your world spread them all over a week ago reporting they were going to execute him. But the funny thing was, I keep seeing people who aren’t happy about that.”

Rouge hummed unsurprised, and Lily seemed to latch onto her response eagerly.

“Do you mind if I tell you a bit of a story? About my daughter?”

“I don’t see why not.” The more Rouge knew about Lily and her reason for visiting, the better.

Lily, however, didn’t start where Rouge expected her too. “Have you ever tried to use your energy?”

“Energy?” Rouge’s lips pinched downward, “what energy?”

“Energy. As souls, as the dead, we gain a small amount of energy as time passes. My husband noticed it a year after we died, he was able to unlock the door to what my pathetic excuse of a sister gave my daughter for a bedroom.”

“And what was that?”

Lily’s teeth snapped together with an audible click: “A cupboard, they put her in a broom cupboard till she turned eleven years old.”

Even Rouge felt the stirring of anger hearing that, picturing a baby with Lily’s features trapped in such a place by her own family. Rouge knew some people existed who would do such a thing, but to hear it was Lily’s own family that had done so. She couldn’t fathom that. She knew if any of her crew had lived, or if any of Roger’s crew knew the truth about Ace, they have protected him in a heartbeat. Rouge had often thought she should have let them know about him; if she had perhaps Ace would not be captured now. Or maybe he would have earlier, Roger’s crew had been in no state to protect Ace from the world.

“My husband unlocked the door, and we managed to get some water and food to Holly.”

“They starved her?” Rouge gasped, “your family starved her?!”

“More than that,” Lily gave Rouge a pained look and forced herself to continue, “for the first few years of her life we used that energy to help Holly survive. To get her food and water, to heal her wounds. We thought, we hoped, that when she turned eleven things would get better, that someone would notice and do something. At least then she’d be in the public eye, and the people we called friends and family would do something anything.”

Lily heaved an exhausted breath and tugged at her hair, “It wasn’t until she turned eleven we realized what was happening. No one was going to fix it, my friends were all dead, and James’ were blocked at every avenue. Her god-father was thrown into prison without a trial and the one man I thought would help her can’t do anything but protect her in secret.”

“I’m so sorry!” Rouge moved forward and wrapped her arms around Lily hugging her tightly. The woman looked like she needed it, and frankly Rouge was tired of denying her own desire. Lily accepted her comfort readily, and for a moment they stood together. Lily tapped Rouge’s arm when she was ready to continue, and Rouge released her gently.

Rouge wondered if she had this energy Lily was speaking of. Her first instinct was to say she didn’t, she’d never been able to touch anything, to help Ace at all. But no, no she had been able to do it once. Ace had been ten at the time, facing against a group of ‘pirates’ about to shoot Luffy. She’d pushed her king’s haki into him, helped him use it to protect them both. Rouge had convinced herself later that Ace had done it alone. Even if she was aware that ten was far too young to use the king’s haki, no matter how strong her son was. Not to mention Ace hadn’t used it again since that time.

“This energy, it’s haki?”

Lily made a curious noise. “What’s haki?” then it was Rouge that was confused, how had Lily used haki without using haki, unless… her energy wasn’t haki? Rouge quickly explained to Lily what haki was, giving her an overview of observation, armament, and conquerors haki and how each worked. Rouge and Roger had both possessed all three she told Lily.

“That makes sense,” Lily mused pacing around the cell, “it works different for us, your soul uses haki in limited use, while mine uses magic.”

“Magic?”

“Ah, I didn’t mention that did I? I’m a witch.” Rouge nodded accepting this like she had everything else. After all, she’d seen stranger things in her travels through the world. So Lily continued with her story. “When we realized nothing was going to happen to help her, I started to save my energy. I thought I’d need it for something big.”

“Are you still saving the energy you collected?” Rouge wondered even as she wondered if perhaps she could use her haki to aid Ace somehow. When she’d been younger she’d used haki to break sea-stone chains on her crew, but Rouge had only done it once and she’d been dangerously weak afterward.

“I am! and it’s the reason I’m here now.”

“Well?” Rouge gave Lily a curious look, “explain away.”

Lily didn’t hesitate. “Much as happened since my daughter’s eleventh birthday, on that day she was introduced to her heritage.”

“Her magic,” Rouge realized.

Lily inclined her head showing Rouge was correct, “She began her schooling to learn to become a proper witch, and she’s so powerful,” Lily preened with parental pride then sobered, “She was eleven when she was tricked into killing someone. Dumbledore, that bloody old fool told her it was ‘my love’ that saved her. Utter Nonsense. It was her magic that protected her, that always has protected her.”

Rouge gave a wan smile as Lily corrected herself, “not to say I don’t love her. But it wasn’t love that kept her safe when we died. I spent a year developing a spell, a blood ritual, that allowed me to give my life for hers. So she could survive even the killing curse itself if she needed to… and she had needed to.” Lily shook her head, “I had hoped I wouldn’t have to use it, I wanted her to grow up with her parents, grow up safe. But that wasn’t in the cards for us. Thankfully that day James stalled long enough when Voldemort attacked to allow me to perform the spell. It saved Holly’s life killing Voldemort and if not for those Horcruxes it would have been permanent-”

“Lily. I’m a bit lost,” Rouge told Lily stopping the flow of words.

Lily blushed, “Sorry, it’s common knowledge in my world for the most part. Voldemort is a dark lord, a racist blood purist who is trying to destroy our home and kill all people who don’t fit his ‘standard’ which is everyone. My husband and I were part of the resistance,”

“Like revolutionaries?” Rouge mused, “my aunt was one.”

“Probably it’s similar. When I fell pregnant a prophecy was given saying a child would be born to defeat the dark lord. Dumbledore, the man - our leader - who we had stupidly put our trust in, allowed the prophecy to be released. Voldemort found out about it and decided my daughter fit the criteria of the person who would defeat him according to what he’d heard. Voldemort decided she needed to die. In response to that James and I were placed under ‘protective spells’ and kept in the house. A spell that would keep us safe so long as someone we trusted kept the secret of our location and took it to his grave.”

“I assume he did not,” Rouge figured since Lily was in fact dead.

“The man we choose, Sirius, did until he and James got it in their fool heads that he was too obvious of a target. Admittedly it was because Sirius was constantly being targeted by his cousin since he was an obvious choice for us. So James and Sirius swapped our secret keeper to another of our friends, a man named Peter.”

“Why is it you did not keep the secret yourself?”

“Dumbledore told us it could only be someone who did not live at the location itself. He might have lied, he might not have, I have no proof regardless. I only suspect it was a lie because the secret keeper can visit the safe-house without issue.” Rouge gave her a judging look and Lily wilted. “I wanted to leave, to take Holly and leave the country. But James, he’s so thick-headed, he wanted to fight, to defend our world. I should have followed my instincts,”

“So you were betrayed, and this Voldemort killed you,” Rouge said, “then this Voldemort was temporarily ‘killed’ but managed to come back to life.”

“Yes,” Lily confirmed, “he used my daughters’ blood as a base and brought himself back to life when she was fourteen years old. He started the war up again a short year later and Dumbledore, because of the prophecy, placed Holly as the leader of the war even though she has next to no training and is only seventeen years old.”

“As old as Luffy. Why does she have no training? Surely if a prophecy existed, someone would ensure she could lead? Could fight?”

“Dumbledore,” Lily snarled, “he claimed he wanted her to have a childhood.”

“Even though she was abused for eleven years?” Rouge asked incredulously, “and killed someone at eleven?” Ace had done so at much younger than that - though she hadn’t liked that he’d been blooded so very young. Not to mention as terrible as a guardian that Garp had been, he’d ensured Ace, Luffy, and Sabo could defend themselves. It seemed Lily’s daughter had not been given the same chance.

“Holly has never been a child,” Lily stated, “Dumbledore kept her in the dark, and we only recently found out why. I was spying on a man I used to call a friend a few months ago, and we learned from him that Holly has a Horcrux in her.”

“You mentioned that before, what is it?”

“A soul fragment. Voldemort split his soul seven times to bind his soul to the living world ensuring he never dies. One of these pieces was placed within my daughter when James and I died. Dumbledore knew it, sensed it the moment he held her after our death. He’s known for seventeen years and planned for it.”

“How do you remove it?”

“Death.”

Rouge’s eyes slid closed. She understood now. “He ensured she could not defend herself so that she’d die in the battle.”

“’For the greater good,’” Lily mocked.

“That poor child,” Rouge whispered, “surely something can be done?”

“There is,” Lily’s green eyes burned in the darkness, “James and Sirius are attempting to use their energy to lead Holly to a set of three items. We believe if she has them in her possession and dies, the items will return her to life. They are known in some circles as a temporary block to death’s embrace.”

“That’s wonderful,” Rouge brightened up, relieved Lily’s little girl had a chance. “But why tell me all this?”

“It comes back the energy I’ve collected and your son,” Lily looked to Ace, “Right now Holly has no one, no reason to live. She has no hope for the future and has been trained and molded to not fight for her own life. Right now… right now she would walk to her death without hesitation. Dumbledore ensured she has nothing to fight for, nothing to linger for, to live for.”

Rouge watched Lily move toward Rouge’s son and felt herself shift sideways almost defensively. She sensed no malice, but someone so close to Ace while he slept made her nervous.

“I had enough for two particular spells of my own invention,” Lily’s teeth flashed, “I’ve had a lot of time to play around with charms in the last seventeen years. When you don’t have to eat or sleep, or even breathe, you get a lot done.”

“What spells?” Rouge demanded as Lily waggled her fingers. Before Rouge’s eyes, a line appeared connected directly to Ace. It was bright emerald green, almost the same shade as Lily’s eyes. Rouge watched as Ace began to glow a soft orange the same shade of the hat he wore so often. The orange bled into the green line coming from his middle, then the line darkened and zipped away into the darkness beyond them.

“Lily?” Rouge pressed, “what is that?” she wasn’t afraid of it; instead, it made her feel so warm. Like seeing it made her feel immense hope.

“That,” Lily said, “is a soul bond and it is directly connected to my daughter.”

“A soul bond… a soul mate? They exist?” Rouge moved forward as the colors around them faded.

“They do,” Lily confirmed, “It’s easy to see them on the dead.” Lily waved her hand again showing off her red glow that vanished racing away into a shade of gold. Rouge at the same time turned a soft pink attached to a deep red that reminded her of Roger.

“I created a spell that allowed me to see Holly’s, difficult because she’s alive, but I managed. Once I figured it out, I followed it here, to Ace.”

Rouge shook her head despair forming in her chest, “Ace is going to be executed soon, Lily. He’s trapped here, helpless. He’s going to die.”

Lily’s smirk gained teeth sharp, vicious, “I have a plan for that as well. It’s not exactly what I originally intended for my second spell. But I can make it work.”

“Explain.”

“I’m going to connect them mentally,” Lily tapped her forehead, “Holly needs a reason to live, a reason to fight and Ace can give it to her. While Ace, it seems needs the same… and a prison break.”

Rouge didn’t dare to hope, didn’t dare breathe even if she couldn’t. She begged Lily with her eyes to say it, to tell her the words.

“I’ll tweak the timing and applications; time will run slower for Ace than it will for Holly. He’ll be present mentally at Holly’s location. That way, they can get to know each other. Holly will get a reason to live, and if it all works out, she will waste no time in rescuing Ace. With magic, it shouldn’t be at all difficult, she’s broken into more challenging places already.”

“They can save each other,” Rouge said breathlessly.

“Yes.”

“How?” Rouge grabbed Lily’s shoulders desperately, pleadingly.

“Just repeat after me.”


	2. Chapter 2

Holly pressed her hands to her forehead and rubbed little circles with them in a desperate attempt to calm her mind. Ever since her fourth year ended Holly had been plagued with headaches which constantly stemmed from Voldemort’s presence. Most of the time, Holly felt the pain of his near-constant anger, a pain no potion, spell, or muggle drug would help cure. However, lately it was not anger she was feeling, though Holly might have actually preferred it. For from the moment Dumbledore died all Voldemort felt was pleasure, which was far far worse. True her head didn’t hurt, but she was distinctly aware why it didn’t, and couldn’t ignore the feelings Voldemort plagued her with. There was something quite horrifying at watching her beloved mentor lowered into the ground and feeling joyful about it.

Reinforcing her occlumency barrier, Holly forced herself out of her chair and away from the research she was attempting to figure out. Hopelessness lit up her chest as she left the parchments behind; it dragged with the locket around her neck and the chain that was slicing into her neck from the way the Horcrux struggled against her.

It was true only because of how long Holly had been in Voldemort’s head that she was resistant to the locket’s whispers. She no longer heard it attempting to turn her and her emotions because such a thing had been a constant for her for years. But her best friends and family, Ron and Hermione did not have those benefits. Hermione had been mildly resistant because of how her mind worked; while Ron, had nothing. It was why his emotions had grown so explosive to the point that he snapped and ran from her. Holly didn’t blame him, it was Voldemort’s fault after all, and she had originally intended to do this quest alone. Which was why, when given a chance, she’d urged Hermione to chase after him.

Hermione had intended to return the moment she caught Ron, and she very well might have. But Holly, the instant she’d been left alone had collected her things and the tent, and then she’d left.

Holly was better off alone. Better off pulling away from Ron who had been suffering so badly and from Hermione who would be so broken once she learned the terrible truth.

She could still feel Dumbledore’s blackened fingers enclosing around her upper arm. Could hear the sound of his sobs in her chest. Could feel the way her stomach had rebelled and the way her heart sank with the truth. As he drank down that potion, as he confessed to her the very worst of his sins- as he-

_“You need to tell her I’m sorry. Please, she has to know-”_

_“Who has to know sir?”_

_“Holly. Holly has to know.” Her heart jumped, her fingers stilled, and Dumbledore took the opportunity to pull her in closer, to tell her the truth-_

_“She’s… she’s a Horcrux, she has to die, she’s always had to die.”_

Holly trudged out of the tent and stretched out her body while glancing at the night sky. She breathed in the crisp air - perhaps for the last time, any time now could be the last of what she’d do - and cracked her neck. Idly rubbing at the skin of her neck Holly felt the bruising there from the locket. She’d need some wood for the fire, and she’d definitely have to sneak into a muggle village again to buy some more food. Lowering her eyes, Holly turned and screamed.

There was a man inside her campsite. A man that had not been there when she’d left the tent, a man that couldn’t possibly be there because Holly had spelled the area like Hermione had taught her. And yet, there he was. A young man with messy black hair, confused brown eyes, and - charming - freckles. He was shirtless and shoeless, with a pair of black pants and a bright orange belt. And he was staring at her with confusion and a small amount of hostility that had Holly reaching for her wand in the sleeve of her shirt.

“Who are you? How did you get here?” Holly demanded perhaps a touch too harshly. She couldn’t quite resist the accusation in her voice because while the man technically looked like a muggle, it was more like a pure-blood attempting to pass off as a muggle to her. After all, who honestly wore that shade of orange without shoes in the forest!

The man’s brow shot up as he glanced at her small form and Holly watched as his eyes scanned her, looking for her wand no doubt, which she was ready to pull in a moments notice. His eyes landed on her sleeve, and his brows returned to normal. “Portgus D. Ace, and… no clue.” His expression did something annoyingly attractive, though hard to read. And then he rubbed the back of his head a bit sheepish and gave her a smile, meant to be polite no doubt, but wow. “Where am I exactly?” he wondered.

Holly’s fingers lingered on her wand as she wondered if perhaps she was mistaken? Maybe he really was a muggle, and he had gotten himself lost in the forest? It didn’t explain his lack of shoes and shirt, but it could happen. So in a test, she asked: “are you lost?”

The man snorted: “oh yeah, pretty lost.” Ace gave their surroundings a look as if he couldn’t fathom what he was seeing. “This is definitely not where I fell asleep.”

Magic? She wondered. Unless he’d fallen unconscious and had woken up after she’d put down her shields. Admittedly she’d been too tired to check the entire area when she’d arrived. Still, there was a way she could be sure he was a muggle. “Got a GPS? Your cell-phone?”

“A what now?” he asked incredulously like she was speaking another language entirely. Which was enough for her.

Holly’s wand snapped into her hand and was pointed at him in an instant. She watched him jerk, like he was about to put up his hands and punch her, or throw something, but froze when he saw her wand instead of another weapon. And by then, she’d already cast her spell. “Stupefy!” the red light of her curse shot out, and the man went to dodge, but few could avoid light itself, and the spell struck him right in the chest- and then went through him and out the other side.

The pair of them stared at his chest for a long pause. The distant sound of crickets and frogs sounded with a gust of wind. Then-

“You shot at me!”

“Well it’s not like it hit you!”

He charged forward toward her moving fast, far faster than she expected anyone could move while stomping, and in a panic Holly hurled another spell. Then she shrieked darting backward as it too went right through him. Now the one too slow Holly yelped as his hand descended to grab her, and went right through her leaving them with another awkward silence.

“What the bloody hell?” Holly’s mind raced as she tried to figure out how that happened.

“What the fu-?!” Ace yelled yanking his arm back, he rushed to clap his hands together and was relieved to learn he could in fact still touch himself, just nothing else it seemed. While Holly made a ‘huh’ sound and poked him with her wand, which went right through his head. “Don’t!” he snapped swatting uselessly at it.

“Huh,” she said again, “you could have told me you were a ghost, you know.” She stashed her wand feeling secure once more, though a bit confused because he wasn’t cold, but was instead warm to her skin when he’d passed through her. Which was definitely unique for a ghost.

“I’m not dead,” he snapped, at least he wasn’t yet.

“Ah, sorry.” Holly made a prayer motion, “sorry for your loss, of you.”

“I’m not dead! I’d remember if I was dead- wait a minute; no, that’s not the point where the hell am I?”

“You are dead. Though I suppose it could be spell damage? Were you cursed?”

“Spell? What are you on?” he stared into her eyes, looking for signs of drugs, which caused her to swat uselessly at him. She would never- “look, lady, I fell asleep, and now I’m here.”

“Then you could be dead. You could have died in your sleep,” Holly reasoned

“I’m not dead,” he insisted, “I’d know if I was-” he was fairly sure at least. “Where is here anyway and why’d you attack me!”

“You didn’t know what a cell phone was,” Holly said as if that was explanation enough. She turned away from him and started to look for wood like she’d originally intended. As a ghost, he wasn’t a threat to her. Especially considering, since he was shirtless, Holly could see his arm and the lack of a dark mark; he was no death eater.

“And?” he followed behind her.

“Which means you aren’t a Muggle or Muggle-born. Anyone who knew about Muggles would know what at least one of those things were.”

“A Muggle what?”

“What rock have you been under.” She waved her hand around them, “we’re kind of at war, you know. Magic? ‘You-know-who’” she air-quoted Voldemort’s other name with heavy sarcasm in her voice.

“I don’t.”

Holly turned and looked at him, “Huh?”

“Don’t know who,” Ace clarified, “and I’ve never heard of any of this. You know your ‘magic,’ and ‘cell phones’ are likely just part of your island and culture, it’s not from other islands. Especially if we’re in the calm belt.” He glared around him at the forest, “what is this island called?”

Now it was Holly looking at him like he’d gone a bit mad. “Calm belt?” she shook her head, “and ‘island?’ Really? I mean technically speaking it is an island but honestly.”

Ace scoffed: “not the calm belt then? The new world? Does anyone leave this place? Go out to sea? You know- ‘travel.’”

“Of course we do, but most people will just take a plane.”

“A what?”

They stared each other down, then seemingly on the same page he abruptly said.

“Newscoo?”

“Newspaper?”

“Den-den-mushi?”

“What?!”

“Log pose?”

“London? Britain? Europe?? Earth?!”

“Is that even common?”

“What the hell is common? I’m speaking English!”

Holly dumped her wood and marched toward Ace, this time she looked him up and down. She could see he was solid looking, unlike all ghosts she’d seen before, he was hot instead of cold. So what was he, why was he- shaking herself off Holly pulled out her wand again and flicked it. “Here look.” She transfigured one of her wood logs into a world map and unrolled it so he could see. “We’re here.” She tapped the general location.

Ace scanned the map with wide eyes: “This is not where I’m from, at all. Where are the blues?”

“Yup, dead.” She teased slightly since she no longer believed that was true. She was beginning to think he was from another world, which she knew was possible just very rare. Which of course meant she’d find him, that was just how the Potter luck worked.

“I’m not dead! Stop saying that,” he snapped back at her. Yet. “Just, displaced-”

“And unable to touch anything.”

“-well, how do I know you didn’t do that with your weird voodoo magic!”

“Magic doesn’t do that,” she reported, “the spell I used is a stunning one, I was just going to freeze you then check your arm.”

“My arm? Why?”

“For a dark mark… and you don’t know what that is. My country is at war right now, the enemies forces have a mark on their arm. Right here.” Holly tapped her tanned skin to him. Ace mimicked her turning his own arm to reveal it was clean as she’d already seen. “Yeah, and there’s no way to cover or disguise it, which makes you not a death eater.”

“Grand.” Ace drawled.

“It is.” She turned away again and flicked her wand, causing her pile of wood to follow behind her. Ace’s eyes went a bit wide at the casual show of magic just as they had when she’d transfigured the map. Holly continued on collecting more pieces, Ace slid a step behind her grabbing at the floating wood, but like with everything else his palm went right through it.

“How’d you get here anyway?” Holly asked after a moment, “if you didn’t die?”

“How should I know, I fell asleep and woke up here in front of you.” He gave her a suspicious look, but she had already denied using magic to bring him here. Which she might not have, he could be dreaming. He checked by pinching his arm, it hurt, which likely mean not a dread. Which meant he could be stuck in a devil fruit’s power.

“That’s it? What were you doing before you slept? Piss off any fae?”

“Trust me, I haven’t done anything in the past week to anger someone enough to send me to a new world. I haven’t even been able to leave the… building, I was in.” Not a lie technically speaking. Which was relatively accurate, he couldn’t anger anyone while stuck alone in a cell.

“Okay well, you can just go back to where you came from now.” Holly flapped her free hand at him. She didn’t have time to deal with him and his problems, she had a war to win, Horcruxes to destroy, and her death to plan.

Ace made a face and wondered if he’d want to return in the first place. Able to touch anything or not, he already preferred where he was. Namely, in the forest and face to face with an attractive woman. He had no desire to return to Impel down. Ace doubted he’d be able to even if he could, after all, Ace had no idea how he’d ended up here, and if ‘here’ was even real.

“Why would I?” Ace said instead with a taunt in his voice, “I think I like it here.”

Holly stopped at her tent and turned toward him, “well you aren’t invited,” she paused a moment, and sighed,” damn, I was hoping that would work.”

“What? Wait hey! I’m not a vampire or a ghost!”

“Oh sure you don’t have cars, but you have vampires in your world,” she sighed, “whatever. Look, I don’t have the time deal with you. I have enough on my plate right now.” She looked away from him, “you can stay in my camp, but I’m leaving tomorrow morning, and we’ll never see each other again.” She floated the wood into her tent, “so nice to meet you and all… goodbye forever.” Holly pulled opened the tent flap and vanished into it without another word.

She liked him, he was fun to talk to, and she honestly wished she could help him get back to his world. But Holly… she couldn’t form attachments, with anyone. But a secret part of her couldn’t help but think, maybe it would be okay with Ace, he’d be gone to his world, and she’d be dead.

No, it was better this way.

From behind her, she heard Ace cry out cheekily: “I never caught your name!” As the tent flap closed. Holly hesitated a step inside, she glanced back and… she turned away.

 

* * *

 

Ace pressed his hand flush against the invisible wall he’d come in contact with. The wall went all the way around the girls camp without any breaks, and nothing Ace did would allow him through it. Taking a step back, Ace cupped his chin and eyed the forest looking for any sign that the wall was present, but he couldn’t make it out. He knew it existed, knew it was trapping him, but he couldn’t escape it.

After the girl had gone into her tent to rest, Ace had started experimenting. First, he’d attempted to use his flames, but nothing had happened. Then he’d tried touching things, but he went through effectively everything, though everything did not include the girl's tent which for some reason he could not enter at all. It grated because a vampire wouldn’t be able to either.

Hand on his hip, Ace turned and marched back to the campsite she’d made and dropped to the floor outside her tent. It wasn’t a great one he personally thought, minimal cover for her tent and the ground was littered in rocks and roots. He’d have been able to pick a better one that wouldn’t allow any cooking fire to be seen from miles away. If she was at war like she claimed, then she was putting herself in danger with such a location. Though perhaps she didn’t know better, he didn’t exactly know anything about her. She could be a rich girl for all he knew, though she didn’t act like it and the scars he’d seen on her forehead and arms said warrior. Not to mention how quickly she’d attacked him when she’d thought him a threat.

Still, the camp was better then impel down Ace knew, he wasn’t cold, and he could move around freely unlike before. Not to mention he was no longer starving steadily, and he could not hear the ruthless aggravating comments from the guards and his fellow prisoners. But Ace didn’t know why he was here, why he’d ended up stuck around the nameless girl. Still, it seemed he was expected to remain here, at least until something changed. Such as the moment his execution would occur, or until the girl woke up and left. Once she did, he’d find out if the wall around the campsite moved, if it’s source was her, or something else.

So not feeling the slightest bit tired, but unable to escape, Ace settled in beside her tent to wait. At the very least he could act as a lookout for these ‘death eater’ people.

Or so he thought, he got bored in seconds. Watching the girls tent and the forest was as dull as watching the ocean on the Moby Dick, except now he didn’t have the entertainment of his fire, a companion, or even the sea itself to gaze at. Utterly bored Ace reached down and on a whim tried to use his haki, black coated his fingers quickly, and he reached down grabbing for a rock- and picked it up.

“What?” he gaped as he lost control of his haki and the rock dropped straight through his fingers. Well, that was interesting. Using his haki, Ace stood and rushed for the wall hoping by coating himself in haki he could escape. He couldn’t. So Ace returned to the campsite and tried his luck at the tent again, which was a failure. So he went about experimenting with other things unaware of two pairs of eyes glaring at him.

_“I don’t like this, five minutes in and he’s already trying to get into our Fawn’s tent,”_

_“I’m sure it was harmless, Lils said he was a good man,”_

_“Yeah, but she got that from the word of his mother. You know you’d never say a bad thing about your kid,”_

_“That’s because Holly is amazing,”_

_“Yeah, see, proof,”_

_“Shut up pads, let’s just keep him out of the tent,”_

_“Permanently? What if they want to-”_

_“Oh, pads, what the hell? I do not want to think about that… but yes, even then.”_

_“Good.”_

 

* * *

 

Holly stopped dead when she left her tent and found Ace sitting in her camp still. He’d been busy over the night, creating a fire, hunting and cooking a few rabbits, and creating a few seats out of wood… how had he even done that without carving tools?!

Ace glanced her way and smirked holding a cooked rabbit in his hands. “Morning. So, I made a fire- shouldn’t be seen by anyone where I put it. Figured you’d like to save some time, so I started a fire to cook breakfast,” he rubbed his eyes “also a few deer passed by during the night, you might be able to catch them. No fawns so they’re free game.”

“Nope.” Holly said and turned her back to him, she flicked her wand. The tent folded itself up and put itself away in her bag, then she stepped past him and toward the forest. “Bye Ace, have a nice long life.” With him behind her, Holly didn’t seem him cringe because he was well aware he wouldn’t.

“Wait a minute.” He grabbed his rabbits and hurriedly doused his fire; he missed being able to do that with his devil fruit, he’d have to make do. “Hey lady!” carrying his rabbits, he rushed after her.

Holly ignored Ace until she was inside the trees and was lowering her shields. Once they were down, she scrubbed the location of her magical signature while Ace loosely followed munching on his rabbit. She dismissed him as he walked to a certain point, the point her shields had been, and randomly put his hand through where her barrier should have been. Then he looked surprised when he was able to do so.

He was so weird.

“Okay well, bye Ace.”

“Err… yeah bye.” He said a bit distracted. Holly stole a lingering look at his back and the odd tattoo she was seeing for the first time. Of course, the back muscles were almost as good- bad as the chest. This man was entirely too buff! Though if she had, to be honest, it was no surprise her brain had temporarily shut down. Wizards did not exercise properly beyond the quidditch team, they were all skinny individuals or fattening ones like Fudge. The best specimen she’d seen had been Oliver. Unfortunately, he had a girlfriend by the time she’d personally be ready to date, which meant her ‘date’ to the Yule ball had been Ron, which had been a painful mistake. Regardless Holly couldn’t help but admire the strange ghost since he very clearly worked out and worked out often.

Eye candy she figured memorizing how Ace looked, before she settled, stepped back, and apparated expecting to never see him again.

Then she landed, and Ace collapsed in front of her with a cry of disgust. “What was that? What did you do?!” he yelled to her in exasperation and ire, not to mention confusion. Because apparently, he was apparating with her, without touching her. There must be more to his appearance than what she’d first thought.

Didn’t stop her from yelling though.

“Why are you still here?” she finally found her voice.

“How am I supposed to know?” He staggered to his feet and groaned when he realized his last rabbit had hit the dirt when he’d fallen, “I was able to leave that bubble that was around the camp. I didn’t expect to be thrown around like that.”

Holly's heart sank a bit but she wasn’t sure why it did, she’d told him to leave multiple times, it shouldn’t hurt that he’d tried. “I apparated, it’s magical travel,” she explained, “the bubble was my shield, to keep my camp safe.” Not that it had entirely worked considering Ace had gotten through it in the first place. “I took it down because some people can use a shield like that to track me through my magic.”

“So I can’t pass through that, huh.” Ace brushed himself off, “doesn’t explain why you brought me with you when you ‘apparated’ though, I thought you wanted to be rid of me.”

“I didn’t bring you!”

“You did; otherwise, I wouldn’t be here Green-eyes.”

“Green-eyes?!”

“Can’t complain lady, you never gave me your name, I had to come up with something,” He shrugged.

Huffing Holly reached up and lifted her hair showing off her scar. She honestly expected him to react, he didn’t.

“Uh, that a hint? Lightning? Scar? Forehead? Zappy? Thunder?”

Holly felt her lips quirk: “You really don’t recognize this?”

“No?” he cocked his head, “am I supposed to? You remember I’m not from this world right?”

‘Huh.’ Holly looked him up and down, well he claimed he was a muggle from another world. So, in theory, she could take his word for it, especially since he hadn’t reacted at all to her scar. “Holly.”

“What?”

“My name, it’s Holly Potter.”

He grinned and quickly extended a hand, “As I said before, Portgas D. Ace, nice to meet you.”

Holly staring at his hand, deadpanned, “you couldn’t touch me before, why are you trying to shake my hand?”

“Give me the benefit of the doubt here. I moved the firewood,” he gave her a roguish grin. Holly gave a deep sigh in return and reached up, as she did his skin coated black. A bit wary, especially after Dumbledore, Holly reached out… and took it. Her eyes went wide as Ace shook her hand, then leaned down and kissed it with a waggle in his brow. Holly snatched it back willing away the blush threatening to spawn on her face.

“So Holly, why take me along?”

“I didn’t!”

“Just like I didn’t travel here by choice?”

“Yes!… wait-”

Ace laughed with a hand on his hip, “so we’ve established the facts, I didn’t come here by choice, and you weren’t involved. Yet we’re stuck together.” Ace had thought about it long and hard over the night. He’d either managed to spontaneously escape Impel Down, or he was still trapped. If this was real and he was ‘free,’ he was still trapped in a brand new world, and the only hint he had, was the girl and her magic. “So how about a deal.” He offered.

“A... deal? What deal?”

“I help you with this war of yours, and you help me get home to my family.” Hopefully before they went to war without him even present… if they went to fight in the first place, he had betrayed his father by ignoring his orders.

Holly grimaced because if he helped her with the war, she couldn’t help him get back to his family. Which meant, she’d likely have to figure it out before the war ended. If she said no, Holly would be stuck with him anyway. But if she said yes, she’d have someone with her that wouldn’t see her die, she’d send him back before that. It was… appealing.

“You don’t know why I’m fighting, what I’m fighting against, or anything about the war at all.”

“Gotta let you in on a little secret. I’m a pirate, I don’t care. As long as I can get home and we’re not murdering innocents, I’m good.” Holly made a noise of surprise looking him up and down again, Ace definitely didn’t look like what she expected a pirate to look like. But then again, she didn’t exactly look like a typical witch either.

“Alright… it’s a deal then, you help me win a war, and I help you get home.”

“Great,” Ace gave her a charming grin, “so… who are you fighting then?”

“Oh, just a blood-thirsty tyrant intent on killing anyone who doesn’t have ‘pure’ magical blood,” her expression crossed a bit, “his name is Voldemort-”

Around them, cracks of apparation began to sound.


	3. Chapter 3

Cracks sounded around Holly and Ace as shadowed figures appeared in the forest around them; and as they began to solidify, Holly Potter groaned in complete and utter annoyance.

“Not again.” She whined while narrowly resisting the urge to rub her forehead in exasperation. Instead, she lifted her arm and without a moment’s hesitation hurled a spell at the first man that fully formed; she dropped him before he had even finished apparating, which would no doubt cause him to splinch, but at that point, Holly didn’t care.

Stepping up beside her Ace lifted a hand, reacting to her sudden aggression, a part of him was prepared to hurl fire until he recalled he couldn't, so he coated his hand with haki and cracked his fingers. “What’s this?” he asked as Holly shot another spell at the second figure who’d formed. A moment later she twisted out of the way narrowly avoiding a bright red spell shot at her chest. Ace didn’t even bother moving as it passed where she had been standing, into his chest, and out. He shot a glare at the man who shot it and was currently cackling in a crazed manner.

“Look! It’s Potty!”

Holly made an aggravated sound. Somehow that stupid taunt from Malfoy had spread to the public at large, and now every death eater called her Potty in insult. Though it usually didn’t overly bother her unless it was Malfoy, which meant that cursed locket was playing with her emotions again, which did make her frustrated. She flicked a spell over her shoulder at the fool and dropped him, the moron didn’t even try to dodge or shield. Voldemort ought to be ashamed.

“These are snatchers.” She explained to Ace, “the lowest of the low of you-know-who-”

“Don’t know who.”

“Quit that!” she said more amused than anything else as Ace calmly waltzed up to one of the snatchers attacking Holly and waved a hand in front of their face. The woman couldn’t see him. After checking that, Ace punched her, knocking her out cold in a single restrained thump. Then he winked at Holly and strode toward the next attacker casually. “So how’d they find us? Didn’t you use… that bubble thing?” he noted to himself that all of these enemies seemed to be able to teleport just like Holly could, though they certainly didn’t use it very efficiently.

“It’s called a ward, and I didn’t put it up yet. But that’s not why they found us. They found us because I forgot about the taboo.” Again.

It wasn’t the first time she’d done so, she’d done it four times prior while talking to herself after Ron and Hermione left. The first time she’d been incredibly panicked, surviving only because of the training Sirius had done with her over her fifth summer break. As it turned out, saying Voldemort always resulted in snatchers coming to capture her. But snatchers were frankly, weak. They were the lowest of the low, the fleas of Voldemort’s forces. Their only skills came from the pitiful defense lessons in Hogwarts instead of the training Voldemort gave his elite. And Holly, who had been trained and was a skilled dueler didn’t really have any problems with snatchers, even when caught off guard.

“Taboo?” Ace questioned casually tripping a snatcher who had been about to cast at Holly, then he slammed his heel into the back of their head knocking them out.

“Basically, if you say you-know-who’s name-” she shot him a warning look when he went to open his mouth, “-your location is revealed to this lot, and they come to capture you.”

“Really.” Ace drawled as the last hit the ground after trying to run when he was out-numbered. They were weak, Ace mentally put them as cannon fodder. Like baby marines, or ordinary East Blue fighters - excluding himself and his brother of course. Holly, he’d set as a decent Grand-Line Pirate, a ranged fighter who needed to learn close combat. He could teach her that, and probably haki as well, with her ranged attacks she’d do well with observation haki… if they had the time that was. He had a week at most to figure out if he was really here or trapped in a devil fruit power, so he didn’t make an escape attempt. He couldn’t forget the second option was possible and knew he’d have to be careful what he told Holly, he didn’t know if she could be trusted, she might be a figment of some marines imagination.

Holly walked around the downed snatchers making sure they were all properly stunned before obliviating their memories. She did not want them following her or discovering her. At the same time, well, Ace was sort of doing the same thing. He stooped before the first snatcher and yanked up the sleeve of their robe to see the so-called ‘mark’ Holly had mentioned.

“Skull and crossbones?” he mused, noting the skull figure and the snake coming from its mouth.

“You-know-who’s mark, he’s obsessed with immortality and avoiding death. Therefore, a skull for a mark. I suppose it makes sense, to him?” It didn’t to Ace, pirates used the skull and cross-bones, but not a single one of them were really avoiding death. They all knew there was a high chance they’d die young. That was just how most pirates bit it.

Ace shrugged and dropped the arm before he started sneaking his fingers into their pockets. He pulled out a coin purse, a few vials of liquid, a stick like Holly’s, and other random knick-knacks. He pocketed it all and moved onto the next man to discover only a couple coins. Local currency for Holly’s world he figured, it was gold, silver, and bronze, but was designed differently from their beri.

“Ace… what are you doing?” Holly asked.

He glanced up and shrugged, “I’m broke here,” he flicked one of the gold coins through his fingers, “-and I’m hungry. Figured we can stop for dinner.”

Holly gave a shocked giggle as she covered her mouth, “you use gold in your world?”

“It’s called beri.” He watched her tap a snatchers head to cast a spell on them.

“Ours is called galleons, but those coins only work in the magical world, and I can't exactly go there, I’m most wanted right now. Otherwise you need pounds, for the muggle world.” It seemed they had something in common then, the worlds most wanted. Which also meant Ace had a good idea of the power levels of the world. If Holly was most wanted it reasoned he’d have little trouble fighting other people of her kind. Especially since their magic was useless to him. And while he had questions about this ‘muggle world’ and why it required a different currency, he had another pressing concern.

“What are you doing to them?” he asked, watching a silvery spell surround a snatchers head.

“Memory spell, I’m erasing their memories of this encounter.”

“Huh.” He watched her perform the spell committing the look and sound of it to memory just in case she used it on him. “Your world doesn’t have a prison?”

“We have one, but you-know-who is in control of the government now, which means the prison. So I can’t exactly get these lot arrested.”

“And why don’t you kill them?”

Holly stilled her wand on the forehead of a snatcher, she stared wide-eyed at the woman she was beside. Then she slowly glanced back at Ace who looked politely curious. At her look, he casually said: “I’ve seen civil wars, I’ve seen more battles then you can count… there’s always death. I’m not judging you or anything, just curious. Why don’t you kill them?” he’d realized it quickly, she was an excellent fighter, but she pulled her punches, and the spells she used were harmless. He doubted she’d ever killed a human, perhaps an animal, but not a human.

“I… don’t… I…” Holly bit her lip and stood trying to sort out her thoughts, “everyone’s always told me who I am, what I’m supposed to act like, and what I’m supposed to be. My future… my entire life has been planned on without me.” She couldn’t look Ace in the eyes as she said: “I suppose… that I just don’t want another thing taken from me. I don’t want anyone to make me a killer.”

Fate and a prophecy had stolen her life, stolen her childhood, stolen her innocence and her parents. What Voldemort and that stupid little orb hadn’t taken, Dumbledore had and he’d always known it. Her future had been taken away again, and again, her path had been written for her down to the minute details, and it had from the very moment Trelawny had sat in front of Dumbledore one night. Holly wouldn’t even survive the year because of it, and… and while she’d accepted that, Holly did not want to kill anyone but the man she was destined to destroy. She’d resist that, only that.

“Would you care if I did it?” Ace asked, pressing the heel of his foot lightly into the neck of a snatcher. His eyes shot up questioning her, reading her.

Holly stared at Ace, stared at the man helpless and stunned under his foot. “Have you?”

“Killed someone?” She nodded. “I have, by the time I was ten I’d taken a life and I’ve taken dozens since then.” He wouldn’t make excuses, disregarding the fact that the first life he’d stolen away had been a pedophile who’d cornered Sabo. Disregarding that the lives taken afterward had been accidental or in defense of himself or his crew. The fact was he had taken life, and he wanted to know what Holly would think of that. If only to see if she’d judge him for what she wouldn’t do.

Holly hesitated, staring at the snatcher and knew she knew him. A Hufflepuff, she’d met him in her third year. He’d been a part of the quidditch team, and she remembered him standing with Cedric before the match that destroyed her Nimbus began. And now he was a death eater, freely willing to capture her and do Merlin knows what with her once he had. And if she left him, well the thought had occurred to her before. There was no telling where he’d go, what he’d do once he was out of her sight. It was for that reason Holly had wanted to recapture Azkaban, but she knew it was a fools' errand.

“I don’t know,” she admitted, “I don’t know if I’d care or not. But… I don’t think I’d judge you.” No, she’d take the death upon her own shoulders. Just like she’d take up the guilt of what he’d do if he lived. Regardless she’d blame herself. Hermione, if she were here, would blame that on her upbringing. The instinctive guilt her aunt and Dumbledore built into her.

“Hm.” Ace removed his foot, “here’s hoping we finish this war quickly then, so we can reclaim that prison.” He strode toward her, “let's move on, before more of this lot show up, and you can tell me about this Voldy-guy, got any clue on how we defeat him?”

“Err…” Holly quickly rushed after Ace, who was calmly walking away a bit bemused at the abrupt change in personality, “that’s it? I thought you were going to… uh…”

“Yell at you for your naivety?” he gave her a sidelong look, “give you a long lecture about how ‘this is war’ and you ‘gotta do what ya gotta do?’”

“Well… yes.”

He scoffed: “I already told you I’m a pirate, I don’t give a shit about whether you want to kill or not, it’s your choice. I just wanted to know because you’re my ticket home, so I’ll just have to watch your back and make sure you don’t let one of those lot get a shot on you because you didn’t take yours.” He strode on as Holly’s eyes went a bit wide, “used to it anyway, a couple of my brothers - my crew - don’t want to kill either. I’d never force them, so I’m not gonna force you.”

“Oh.” Holly and Ace strode into the forest as she prepared to apparate, to erase her trail completely when Ace asked.

“So, you use magic right?”

She stilled arching a brow: “yes?”

“And you were erasing their memories?”

“Yes.”

“Can you read them? Memories?” he stopped and looked at her.

Holly made a face, but in the end confirmed the truth: “Yes, I can, it’s a spell called legilimency and can only be countered by mental shields. Most people don’t know the counter though, and a strong legilimens can break through most shields anyway.”

“So… for example, if we decided to purposely use that Voldy-guys name, defeat and capture his forces, steal their shit… and then, read their memories for information on him? It’s that possible?”

Holly blinked, once, twice… she hadn’t thought to do that: “well… yeah, we could. But the snatchers are small fry, basically useless.”

“Ah ah ah,” he waggled a finger at her, “they get their orders from somewhere. We find that location, then we find the big fish and read their memories for the sea-king.”

“Is that a reference in your world?”

“Never-mind that, tell me about this Voldy-guy, then we have a plan to build.”

Holly reached out her arm for Ace’s when she prepared to apparate, and he arched a brow at her. “Apparating usually requires skin contact when you want to bring someone with you. Might be a bit easier on your stomach if you hold me.” Ace hesitated a moment, then reached out for her. He watched as Holly went to grab his hand and went through right it as he snickered. She snorted and rolled her eyes. “Ha ha very funny, do that thing so we can go. Or maybe I'll just apparate whenever and you can deal with it.”

Laughing Ace coated his arm in haki and allowed her to take it. “It’s called haki, armament haki specifically, it’s the use of life force as physical reinforcement to the body.” Technically he was copying Marco’s explanation, but he was sure his brother wouldn’t mind.

“Weird.”

“Says the girl with magic.”

“…fair.” She turned on her heal, and the world twisted around them, causing them to land in a forest near a muggle town Hermione had brought her to earlier in the year. She liked to use it to mess up her trail for pursuing death eaters. The poor fools could not fathom the train and bus system when she used it.

“This way.” She directed leading Ace - who seemed already used to apparating after doing it once - into the town. A part of her was expected to have to explain everything they saw to Ace considering he hadn’t known what a cell-phone was, but Ace surprised her and took their surroundings in stride. He didn’t so much as blink over the passing cars, people, clothing, or shops.

“It’s not too different from my world.” Ace noted, and Holly jerked, “you were staring at me.” He explained having guessed the reason she had done so. “Most of this I’ve seen on different islands, and what I haven’t still isn’t overly surprising. I travel a lot, you get used to strange sights.” It was part of the reason he’d taken her magic in stride, after devil fruits and the weather of the new world, magic wasn’t overly strange. He would bet Holly would react stronger to the fact that he was made of fire than he would to her abilities.

“Really?” Holly asked, stopping at a bus stop, “what’s it like… your world?”

Ace thought on the map Holly had made for him and explained loosely: “most of my world is made of water, the only land is the islands, but each island is different.” He gestured vaguely trying to remember some of what he’d been told, “on the Grand-line and in the new-world travel between islands is rare, and near impossible a few decades ago. So each island remains separated, so the customs, development, advances, language, traditions, and such are all different. Islands didn’t share with each other until recently. So you can get dinosaurs on one island, then a technical marvel on the island right beside it.”

“Dinosaurs? Really? Have you seen some?” Holly asked brightly, that was fascinating. Travel between islands must be so exciting, you’d never know what you’d get until you were there. For Holly who had been a caged child, and a caged teenager who’d never even seen the ocean, the idea was enthralling.

“Yeah, I’ve seen them, met a guy who could transform into one too.”

“What?!” the bus stopped in front of them as Ace slowly explained devil fruit’s finding her enthralled expression quite endearing. To the point that he loosely explained, that Marco, his eldest brother, could transform into a phoenix. He still said nothing the public and marines didn’t know, just in case. Holly and Ace boarded the bus and Holly paid for herself since the driver couldn’t see Ace, and they took the back seats, Ace right beside her kicked his legs up.

“Phoenix’s are real in the magical world.” She told Ace, “my late headmaster had one, Fawkes. He saved my life when I was twelve.”

“How?” Ace wondered, he didn’t think Marco’s healing could extend to others.

“Uh, there was this basilisk - it’s a hundred-foot-long snake that kills with one look and has deadly venom - it bit me. Fawkes tears are healing, so he cried into the bite wound and saved me.” Holly pulled up her shirt showing off the scar there.

Ace gave a whistle, he’d been younger when he’d killed something that size but with a venomous bite and eyes, that was impressive especially considering Holly was physically weak. Turning Ace jerked a thumb to his back where he had three long scars across his back. “About a fifty feet high tiger nicked me when I was fourteen, was bedridden for a couple days at least.”

Holly gave a started snort, “three days, whatever did you do.” Three days was a long time for those with magical healing, but Ace was a muggle. Three days was a crazy short time to be in bed for such a wound with muggle doctors.

“Mostly told my brother that-” Ace cut off snapping his mouth shut, he’d almost spoken about Luffy, he’d almost put Luffy in danger.

Holly noticed his sudden silence, but from the expression on his face, it wasn’t something she should push, so Holly didn’t ask. Instead, she hit the bell to stop the bus and stood. “Let's get off here, there’s a station nearby, we can take it deeper into the city before apparating again… and maybe we can get some food. I’ve meant to stock up anyway.”

“Right.” Ace stood following her off the bus and swore he’d never get that relaxed again. He absolutely could not say anything that could put his brothers, any of them, in danger. He remained silent as Holly showed him to a department store and told him to pick out whatever he wanted to try. Neither of them really thought what Ace carrying things would look to the muggles, but thankfully no one actually did notice. Ace found himself too distracted by the selections and wondering what the meat flavored chips tasted like and if Luffy would like them. While Holly was distracted by watching Ace and finding his sudden silence somewhat off-putting. Funny how quick she got used to having another person around her.

After getting food, Ace grabbed the bags, and they left and rounded the building. “Here, gimme.” Holly requested while holding open her bottomless purse.

“Don’t think much is going to fit in that.” Ace commented, setting the bags down as the haki fled from his arms.

“Tisk tisk Ace, did you forget? I’m a witch.” With an exaggerated movement, Holly lifted the bags and dropped them one by one into her purse. She highly enjoyed watching Ace’s face go slack in quick surprise as her little bag swallowed the others. “If you think this is impressive, just wait until you see the tent.”

“Tent?”

 

* * *

 

Holly put away the groceries as Ace wandered room to room through her magical tent yelling exclamations as he went. Holly couldn’t wait till he discovered the plumbing, the shower was absolutely the best part Holly decided. A thump of someone jumping on the bed, followed by Ace yelling in delight had her grin fondly.

Flicking her wand, Holly set a simple meal to cook using the spell Molly had taught her and went for her journal. Dropping it on the table Holly took a seat and flicked it open absently rubbing at her bruised neck, she was going to need some more potion for the bruising, it was getting a bit raw again. She’d have to make some though, she’d used the last of it recently which meant she’d need to take some time to set up her cauldron to brew the potion. Which was another thing to do on top of her research and now Ace’s problem.

Rubbing her temples, Holly tried to focus on the loose research she’d done. Seven Horcruxes needed to be destroyed, two were gone, two more found, and the other three were unknowns. But even if she could locate the other three Holly had not been told how to destroy them once she found them like she’d found the locket. The only thing she knew would work was that the one in her head would be destroyed if she was struck by another killing curse. Which meant the method of her death was set, she had to let Voldemort kill her after she’d destroyed the other four Horcruxes, and afterward it was up to someone else to finish the then vulnerable Voldemort off.

In theory with Ace’s cooperation, she could set up a way for him to return after she was dead and he could finish Voldemort. He was immune to magic and couldn’t be seen, so if he were willing, he’d be able to kill Voldemort after she was gone with ease. But Holly didn’t want to leave that on his shoulders. Because she didn’t know if after she was gone, he’d remain - since he seemed attached to her. Because he wasn’t part of their world. Because he needed to go home and she didn’t want him to see her die like everyone else would. Because there was still that tiny part of her that thought if she could find a safe way to destroy the locket’s Horcrux, then she could also use it on herself, and she’d live-

She rubbed her neck again and gazed hopelessly at her research. Months she’d done this, months wandering the country and trying to figure it out. All she had to show for it was a building scarring on her neck and the knowledge that she was failing.

A hand brushed the back of her neck, and Holly flinched.

“Sorry.” Said Ace as she swung around, he took a step back apologetically with his hands up. He’d done it before thinking, before asking himself how’d she’d react to touch in the vulnerable spot, one he’d personally punch someone out for touching. But he’d been watching her for several minutes and had seen her continually rubbing at that area, he’d grown curious, and a bit concerned.

“It’s fine.” She mumbled brushing her hair, so it properly covered her neck, “do you need something?”

“No,” he moved around the table to sit in front of her, “just wondering why you wear that thing, shouldn’t you change the chain?” his mind was already wandering to different reasons for it. The scarring on her neck - and yes he’d seen it - looked like the result of slavery, like someone’s neck after wearing a collar for too long. But she didn’t seem like a prisoner, so perhaps it was sentimental, but even sentiment to the point of injury… why would she do that?

“It’s…” Holly paused as she looked at Ace. She hadn’t told anyone in the order about the Horcruxes, she hadn’t spoken of it to anyone outside Hermione and Ron. And Voldemort hadn’t told anyone but her about it. She knew the headmaster would roll in her grave if she spoke about it to a muggle. Especially one she’d just met, for all she knew, he could be faking her out. Could she really risk the knowledge of Horcruxes on Ace?

Right now… no.

“It’s a bit heavy sometimes. But it… I can’t leave it behind, so I wear it.” Not a lie, she wasn’t lying to him.

Ace nodded, letting it drop just like she’d not asked about his earlier cut off comment, and changed the subject: “so, how do we defeat this guy and get me home?”

Holly winced because he’d asked exactly what she wasn’t going to tell him. She couldn’t tell him about the Horcruxes… and she didn’t have to. “Your suggestion earlier was a good idea, if we remove you-don’t-know-who’s elite members, then he loses power, and we can target him directly.” Ace laughed as Holly altered her ‘you-know-who’ just to stop him from telling her he didn’t know who she was talking about.

Really though, if she could get her hands on people like Bellatrix, she might be able to pull the locations of the other Horcruxes' from them. Voldemort must have trusted more of his elite with them like he had Regulus and Lucius. “As for getting you home, first we have to figure out how you got here in the first place. So, tell me everything, what happened?”

Ace kicked back in his chair, leaning it on two legs. He decided quickly there was no harm in telling her, it was public knowledge in his world, the marines couldn’t use anything he said against him if he was careful. “I was hunting a traitor to my family, a man that killed one of our brothers for some stupid trinket.” He snarled enraged at that fat bastard that had dared to threaten Luffy to Ace’s face. “He defeated me and handed me to the marines so he could become a Shichibukai.”

“A what?!” Holly recoiled a bit as she flipped through her journal to a few empty pages so she could write a few notes.

“Pirates who work for the marines for different benefits, a couple of them aren’t too terrible, but mostly they suck.” Mostly Hancock he’d heard was a decent leader to her people, and Mihawk was friends with Shanks and rarely did what he was told to do by the marines. But on the opposite hand, there was Crocodile - who Luffy had beaten up - and Doflamingo. “They accepted because they wanted to start a war.” Holly gave him a confused look, and he sighed, “they think by executing me in public my father will try to rescue me, they want to kill him and put the marines back in power with his death.”

“Why do you sound like… like you think he won’t come? He’s your dad, isn’t he?”

“By choice,” Ace muttered, “not by blood. Anyway, I disobeyed a direct order to hunt down Teach. I betrayed them, they’re better off leaving me to rot.”

“Ace.” Holly breathed baffled by the sudden shift in his mood and attitude, “that can’t be true! They’re your family, of course they’ll save you.” She had to have faith in that, that not only would Ace’s family save him, but that her family would have tried to save her given the chance. She knew if she’d let Hermione and Ron know… she knew they never would have stopped until they found a way to save her life. And that was why she’d been forced to make them leave her; because Holly couldn’t allow them to carry that guilt and anguish should they fail.

“They shouldn’t, and they won’t, I’m not worth that.”

What? That was bull! She’d barely known Ace a day and knew he was definitely worth it. “Ace-” he cut her off with a snarl of anger as he dropped his chair onto all fours with a loud bang.

“Doesn’t fucking matter if they’re coming or not, it has nothing to do with how I got here.” He slammed his hands on the table, “I was put in Impel Down, the prison no one escapes from! They locked me in the lowest levels covered in sea-stone chains. After a few days, I fell asleep, and I woke up here. Nothing else happened.” He shoved away from the table, “I’m going to crash, do whatever… and your food is burning.”

“What?!” Holly spun to check her stove, and sure enough, the meat she’d left cooking was now burning. At some point, she’d lost control of her spell. Holly rushed to fix the mess, and when she finally turned back, Ace was gone, and the door to the room Ron used to use, was closed. Holly sighed and set the burnt meat onto a plate, she was better off not wasting it.

“Ah, I didn’t ask him what Sea-stone was.” She realized as she set her plate on the table, “I’ll have to tomorrow morning.” For the time being, she’d have to see if Hermione had any books on travel across worlds. Maybe it was something like astral projection since Ace wasn’t physically present unless he was using haki. She was sure she had a book on that somewhere, it was worth a read.

Holly ate her dinner in silence before going hunting for the book. While in the other room, Ace lay on the single bed with an arm across his eyes. Truthfully he hadn’t intended to get so angry, but Holly had brought up something that was a trigger for him. Now he couldn’t stop thinking about his family, about the marines gathering up to kill his father and brothers. And if he wasn’t in denial, Ace knew they’d show up. Whitebeard would never allow this challenge to lie no matter what Ace might have done before his capture. It was becoming so complicated, putting aside Holly and how he’d ended up in her world, Ace knew the Marines were aware now of who his blood father was. He knew they’d used it against him even if he escaped, and they’d reveal the truth to the world, to his family.

Closing his eyes, Ace’s being cried out for rest. He’d been pushing it back for days unwilling to let his guard down in Impel Down. But he wasn’t physically there anymore and as odd as it was, he was confident Holly would not cast spells on him while he was asleep.

A few minutes wouldn’t change anything, right?

Ace drifted, let the world around fade for all but the sounds of Holly moving around in the other room. He could sense her hunting through a collection of books as she knelt on the ground. Could sense something around her neck, a black spot that nearly brought him to awareness- when he heard dripping water instead of a softly crackling fire. And then there was a scream-

His eyes snapped open to find himself chained downed once more, and trapped in the freezing darkness alone.


	4. Chapter 4

Hermione used to tell Holly that she had an absolutely wretched posture. She’d do her homework hunched over like a bat - and Ron’s comparison to Snape had not helped her temper at all - while she squinted at whatever it was she’d been reading. Squinted because Holly was incredibly near-sighted and while Holly could spot a snitch from miles away, she could not read the words right in front of her face. Truthfully, the incorrect prescription of glasses she’d worn for years hadn’t helped. Thankfully Bill Weasley had realized the prescription was wrong when she’d been fourteen, and he’d dragged her off to get her a pair of expensive automatically updating glasses. Of course, by then it was too late to fix her posture unless Holly worked on it, which she hadn’t.

So while Ace slept in Ron’s room, Holly sat hunched over in one of the chairs before the fire. It had been her spot before Ron and Hermione had left. She’d sit there with Hermione nose deep in her book, and Ron would be sketching something he’d never showed them. Hermione would be trying to figure out what could be a Horcrux as she went over Dumbledore’s clues again and again. While Holly would be looking for a way to destroy them and the locket, while also aware that any method she came up with, also had to work on her.

Holly remembered one afternoon Ron had slammed his hands on the table startling both Holly and Hermione. That day had been a better one with Holly wearing the locket. He’d taken both their hands and yelled; “this is insane, we need a new point of view because we’re getting nowhere! Come on, let’s do something fun for a change, get our minds off this.” They’d ended up dancing and playing games and just enjoying themselves while they still could. It had worked too, Hermione had realized that afternoon that Godric Gryffindor’s sword could destroy the locket if they got their hands on it. Unfortunately, the sword would not help Holly.

Recalling Ron’s comment that they had needed another point of view Holly later tried to work on different problems when she got too frustrated with one. Which was why she was focusing on Ace’s odd issue, instead of her own. Not to mention Holly knew that strictly speaking her war could go on for years, and she at least had the rest of the year to live. While Ace was facing execution soon, she didn’t know how far away that was though, it was something she’d have to ask Ace once he woke up.

Distantly Holly desperately missed Ron’s scratching quill and Hermione’s soft mumbles as they worked. But while Ace was deadly silent in Ron’s room, Holly was thankful for the awareness that he was there. That knowledge alone relaxed her in a way she couldn’t quite describe and didn’t quite understand. And perhaps it was his presence and the change he brought forth that had her quickly realizing something.

“Astral projection!” Holly cried, punching the air in victory as she nearly unseated her book right into the fire. Thankfully she caught it before it could go over.

Astral projection had to be what was happening to Ace, it fit perfectly. Conscious but incorporeal in a location he hadn’t been before, unable to touch or be seen - excluding his haki and herself - but aware. It fit except for the fact that Ace didn’t have magic. Though it must be possible to perform astral projection on someone else, but how? Who? And why?!

“Why end up with me though?” Holly asked herself as she tapped her chin, “he’s from another world… oh-oh no.” Holly’s eyes went a bit wide. If it was astral projection than Ace was physically still in prison, which meant his body was helpless and soon to be dragged off to execution while his mind was with her-

Something struck the floor behind her and Holly snapped around hand going for her wand. In all likelihood, she knew it was probably Ace, but paranoia kept her alive as Moody drilled into her. Scanning the area Holly frowned. One of the cups Ron had left on the back had fallen off the shelf mysteriously, and no one was there. Should that have happened to someone else they might not have reacted as Holly did, they might have come up with an excuse for why it happened or dismissed it. Might have assumed Ace nudged it on his way to bed and it had taken that long to fall. Holly wasn’t most people.

Strange occurrences like that had happened all her life; Potter luck Ron used to call it. Without fail every time she needed to pay attention to something, something would fall near her. It happened when she’d been desperate for a hint in her fourth year about the dragons. Something had landed just in time for her to stop and overhear Ron talking to Neville about finding a way to warn her about the dragons without physically being present. And when she’d later needed a sign about the lake, a cup of water had splashed over the egg when she’d had it open and had altered the screeching enough to give her a sign. Instances like that had happened all her life, and Holly instinctively responded to them now.

Instantly she shot to her feet wand in hand and quickly cast a scanning charm for the area around her tent. It came up empty.

 _Empty_.

“Ace.” Holly exhaled and rushed for Ace’s room in a rush of panic. Because they spell should have picked up everyone in the area outside herself, which meant Ace, and if it hadn’t then-

She burst into Ace’s room and came to a dead stop. In the middle of the bed was Ace hanging on invisible chains and more faded than she’d ever seen him. Holly had to strain her eyes to make out his form. As Holly watched Ace abruptly jerked like a force as invisible as the chains had struck him across the face. She watched in shock as Ace shook violently then straightened up near instantly and snarled like an animal.

“Ace!?” she called, stepping forward warily. His eyes were open, but he wasn’t reacting like he could see her, which made her concerned that he was sleeping. She knew how violent she could be after a nightmare and considering what she’d seen of Ace’s speed, she was afraid he could hurt her accidentally, especially if his strength matched that speed. She had no idea if he’d use haki in his sleep, and the unknowns of the situation ensured she didn’t touch him.

Still, the fact was, Holly was worried. As Ace jerked again and grunted, as a blackening bruise formed on his cheek and eye, as he did nothing to stop what was happening to him and as he continued to not react to her.

“Ace! Wake up!” she ordered from a decent distance. Nothing, he wasn’t responding. Holly bit her lip glancing around as if looking for help where none was to be found. Left alone she reached forward to grab him and shake him out of it as he jerked violently again. “Ace!” her hand went right through his shoulder and she yanked back. Stumbling backward Holly watched as Ace’s head swung back and hit an invisible wall.

But still, he didn’t wake.

 

* * *

 

Rouge hadn’t been able to watch her son when Lily had been forced to release the spell on him temporarily. She hadn’t wanted to, not while the kids were bonding. But the guards had come, and neither Lily nor Rouge had wanted Ace mentally absent while they were so close to him.

Now Rouge had left to watch Holly, while Lily watched over Ace. Lily knew Rouge had to be feeling intensely guilty, for Rouge had energy saved up inside her before this but hadn’t known it. Rouge had been able to use her haki, but while Ace was trapped within Impel down, nothing Rouge could do with haki would help him. So Rouge had put her faith in Holly and had given Lily all her energy to connect Ace and Holly mentally. Which meant as the guards came to taunt and beat her son, Rouge could do nothing and had fled unable to watch.

Lily frankly didn’t want to watch either. This cruelty reminded her of Azkaban, but instead of the monstrous Dementors, it was humans torturing a young man for who his father was and for no other reason but that.

“You’re good for her,” Lily told Ace even if he couldn’t hear her as she tried to distract herself, told him as the guard punched Ace across the face while he hung limp. Lily watched as the young man bared his teeth at the guard, never showing a moments weakness. “She’s smiling more, and she’s actually laughing now! I haven’t heard her laugh in months.” Lily winced as Ace’s head cracked to the back of the cell, “she’s going to be good for you too.”

Lily knew her daughter and Ace were bonding, and she knew from what Rouge had told her that Ace was slow to trust but eternally loyal to those that earned it… Holly was the same. She knew they were bonding, but Lily was ever aware of the ticking clock on the energy within her and how long both Ace and Holly really had. Holly who’s fate was still directly tied to the Horcrux in her head and the future of the magical world. And Ace, who had an axe over his head held up by a timer in the hands of the Marines. She knew if her magic ran out too early then everything she, James, Sirius, and Rouge had done… would be useless. She knew if Ace and Holly couldn’t learn to trust each other, then they would likewise both be dead before the year-end. She tried to have hope, but Lily had always been a pessimist. James was the positive one between them, the one who had faith and so much joy within him, and since she remained with Ace, James stayed with Holly, and without James present Lily couldn’t erase the thoughts plaguing her.

Another crack of flesh had Ace violently thrown to the side, and still, he didn’t make a sound. And Lily desperately wished she had the magic to spare, to destroy and burn these monstrous men that thought they represented justice. Lily brutally crushed the idea, she dared not waste a moment of her energy on them. For one spell could mean the difference between life and death for Ace, and for Holly. So she remained still, vigilant at Ace’s side as he was beaten black and blue.

The guards finished, and Lily sagged in relief when she felt arms wrap around her middle. Lily leaned back, knowing right away it was James come from Holly’s side. James coming to her because he always, always, knew when she needed him. “His soul is still present with her, they’re still tied together, so we don’t have to recast that spell,” James told her his face in a frown, “But… his form there is moving like it is here and we decided to bring her attention to it.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Lily asked as Ace spat out blood and shook out his head to stop it from ringing.

“Rouge and I agreed, it’s better she has an idea of what’s happening, especially if this happens again.” Which in all likelihood it would. Lily nodded, agreeing with their idea before pulling away and triple checking that the guards were gone.

“Do we know how we’re going to get her to the wand yet?” She asked giving the wounds Ace had sustained a second look. A bit of bruise paste, a few healing charms and he'd be fine; but Lily had neither. She could do nothing for the young man who was her daughter's soul-mate who was saving Holly just by being around her.

In another world, Lily might not have met Ace considering the different worlds. But if they had, well Lily would likely have watched this man marry her Holly. She'd see him standing at the altar with her, Holly would bring him home for holidays and James would do everything to prank/test him to see if he was worthy. Then one day Lily and James would have met Holly and Ace's children, with Ace and Rouge's beautiful freckles, Holly and her eyes, and James’ obnoxious hair that Ace matched curiously well.

Lily longed for such a world, a world where she got to raise her child and perhaps a second. A world where Ace did not have to suffer the way he was. Where Holly and Ace both did not have to fear death at such a young age.

But that world didn't exist.

“We’re working on it,” James told her gently, it was one of the few things he and Sirius could do for her and for Ace, they knew how important it was. But getting Holly to the blond menace that currently owned the wand was proving tricky. Doubly so now that Ace was present.

“So, no.” Lily knelt before Ace who spat out a glob of blood on the ground, and she reached for his head. Lily paused as Ace suddenly sagged, defeat in his body and his soul. “You’re worried it’s not real aren’t you.” She realized looking at the boy who physically was as old as she and James when they’d died. They’d have to find a way to tell him it was real because if he didn’t trust it, he didn’t trust Holly and they wouldn’t bond enough for Holly to try to survive and for her to save him. “We’ll figure it out.”

Lily reached forward and sank her fingers into Ace’s hair, and her spell dragged his consciousness away, his body going limp once more.

 

* * *

 

Ace watched the guards leave as a chill rushed over his skin. Only when they were long gone did he allow himself to sag onto his chains and really feel what had happened too him. Because, because he was a moron, he’d allowed himself to have something as stupid as hope. He’d actually believed Holly Potter had been a real woman, believed that with her magic she could save him if he saved her. And then he’d woken up to the guards rounding the corner toward his cell.

His blackened eye and the bruises coating his arms were all the sign he needed. She’d been a trick, a trap to get him to lower his barriers, to give out information on his father and siblings. He gave a sardonic laugh, it was a good trick. She was charming, attractive, and frankly his type. She had a ballsy-ness that drew him to her, a sarcastic wit that allowed her to banter with him, but not the type to get offended either by what was discussed. And her body, her eyes were as green as the forests he’d loved as a child, while he’d always loved dark hair. And she could fight, which meant she’d be able to go out to sea and actually defend herself.

He’d liked her, he could admit that. Perhaps that was why he’d fallen for it, it was probably why he should have suspected her more. She fit him too well, and clearly, there had been a reason for that. She was designed by marines, designed to trap him.

It hurt… he’d wanted her to be real, wanted a chance with her…but, of course, he didn’t deserve that. All he deserved was death, that’s all.

_“Ace. That can’t be true! They’re your family, of course they’ll save you.”_

He grit his teeth, grinding them together as he scanned the area for a den-den. Surely the Marines had to be recording him, laughing at his expense. He didn’t see one, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there.

A chill brushed over his forehead, and ice entered his brain like the worst headache he’d ever had. Ace recoiled gasping as his eyes went wide, as he saw a flash of red… there she was, the Marine, the one responsible for this-

The world twisted away from him, glittering and dancing before he found himself back on the bed in ‘Holly’s’ tent. With the figment sitting right in front of him- and Ace snarled in rage.

Holly yelped and jerked backward when Ace suddenly gasped and sagged forward. As he scanned the area around him and caught her eyes with his own for the first time in the hours he’d been out. Relief rushed through her heart as he returned to himself, she’d honestly been terrified that she’d end up alone again. She’d gotten attached to Ace in a way that hadn’t happened since she’d first met Ron. Her connection with Ace had been instant, unmistakable, undeniable, and in another situation, she would have fallen hard and fast. She could picture it, the pair of them in his world, a pirate come to her town and the two of them bumping into each other on the streets before snarking at each other for hours. She’d probably want to ask him out but would be too afraid to, and he’d ask instead. Then she’d leave her town for him and travel the world like she’d always dreamed of.

But this wasn’t that world, and Holly didn’t have the luxury of trust with what lay in Ron’s bed. So Holly shoved back the day-dreams and forced herself to keep neutral even if worry had been building for the last several hours as she watched Ace’s limp body grow black and blue with unnaturally occurring bruises. Keep indifferent to the man she had an obnoxious building attraction to.

“Alright Ace? You were kinda… going a bit weird there-” she fell back on their banter, trusting he’d respond to her as he had the other times. But before she got too far into it, rage overtook Ace’s face.

Holly hadn’t seen Ace fight for real, she didn’t know how fast he moved except for the one spell he’d dodged, and she didn’t know he was much faster than that when he tried. So when Ace charged at her, she was taken aback and had no chance at all to avoid his grab. Ace was fast, faster than any spell she’d seen cast. He moved almost instantaneously, and Holly had no chance to avoid him. Not as his hand blackened and he grabbed her shirt by the collar and suddenly slammed her into the nearest wall.

“Is this fun for you?” he snarled, pushing firmly against her collarbone.

“W-what?” she stuttered hands automatically going up to catch his wrists, but they unlike the rest of him wasn’t blackened with his haki, and she went straight through leaving her helpless to his grip.

“Dragging me around, beating me black and blue then giving me this fucking hope only to rip it away?! What do you want? What secrets do you think you’ll take from me!”

“Ace-”

“Is it fun?” he shook her slightly, and Holly built a bit of magic into her hands, she didn’t need her wand, but it certainly helped. However Ace knew she used a wand to attack, which meant Holly had to defend herself without it, lest he snap it with his speed. She wasn’t sure if a spell would help her, but while he wasn’t yet hurting her, she was wary that he might soon. His touch was firm but not bruising, not cutting off her airway, it was keeping her still and was incredibly threatening, but that was it. Considering how fast he moved Holly reasoned his strength was not to laugh at, he could no doubt snap her neck like a twig.

At least then the Horcrux would be gone from the world.

“Why don’t you just drop the act, don’t know why you're bothering with this. Why not just go all out and show me everyone I love dead around my feet, I bet it would be more entertaining! Oh unless you’re one of those, convinced I can’t love because I’m a pirate right!”

“Ace I don’t know what you're talking about!” Holly charged more magic into her palms ready but hoping she could calm him down.

“Don’t lie to me Marine, I figured it out- you-” Holly saw something from the side-table of Ron’s bed suddenly lift off the table and hurl itself at the back of Ace’s head. But she knew it wasn’t her, she still had control of her magic. So what was that? Was the coincidences in her life, more than coincidences?

Ace jerked forward surprising them both when the item actually hit him instead of going right through his head to hit her. He gave a surprised gasp and glanced back; seeing nothing, he turned back on her: “What did you do now?” He demanded.

“It wasn’t me!” she told him offended, he knew bloody well that her magic didn’t work on him, “I can’t even use magic on you.”

“Likely story-” his grip tightened, and she decided enough was enough.

“Okay, that’s enough now.” Holly released the building magic in her palms and hurled it at Ace. Amazingly the instinctive spell worked, and it shoved him back a few steps, forcing him to release her. That done Holly swiftly cast a simple ward between them, just in case. “You need to calm down because I have no idea what’s going on with you. One minute I’m reading my book - to get you home by the way - and I came to check on you to find you hanging on the bed and acting like someone was hitting you. Then you woke up and freaked.” She gestured loosely to the bed, “so, what happened?”

He bared his teeth at her: “I went to sleep and woke up in Impel Down just in time for the guards to find their enjoyment in my flesh.”

Holly shot a look at the bruising and scowled, she was beginning to suspect- No, she shook her head and focused on Ace. “So you assumed I was involved, that I’m keeping you here to mess with you.”

“Obviously.” He nudged loosely at the ward between them with a hand confirming for himself that she’d placed something there. Deep down he approved, she protected herself… which was another reason he liked and hated her.

Holly puffed up in indignant fury and stomped her foot: “Obviously not! I haven’t done a thing, and if you remember, I was the one trying to leave you this whole time. Also! You offered the deal to me, not the other way around. I haven’t been taking steps here Ace, that’s been you. So calm down and let’s think about this rationally.”

“Rationally?!”

“Yes!” She waved away the ward noting he had calmed down, then stepped forward and pretended to poke him in the chest, “an unknown force sends you to me while you’re trapped in prison, this same force brings you back to prison when the guards arrive, then when they leave, it brings you back here. Do you know what that makes me think?” Ace grunted, curious despite himself, “it makes me think it’s looking out for you.”

He made a face uncertain now: “…what?”

Holly rolled her eyes, placing her hand on her hip: “you’re trapped and going to be executed in prison so you get sent to someone who can help with magic. But it can’t send you physically, only mentally.” She gestured in the general direction of the living room, “I did some reading while you were out, I believe what’s happening to you is a type of astral projection. That means your consciousness is here, but your body is still in your world. Which also means if you had remained mentally here when these guards showed up, they would have found your body helpless to defend itself. Now, what would they have done if they found you like that?”

Ace winced quickly filling in the blanks of her question. It would have been bad. The previous times he’d been able to somewhat alter where the worst damage was going, he’d been able to brace himself. But if he hadn’t been able to do that…

“So, whoever it is, drags you back so you can handle the guards. Then when they’re gone, and you’re safe again, you get sent back to me.”

“Who would do that? And why pick you? The theory doesn’t fit.”

“I’m sure someone exists that would help you, and as for why me… well, maybe because I needed help too. Maybe you’re the ‘power the dark lord knows not,’”

“What nonsense are you saying now.”

She flapped a dismissive hand: “It’s part of a prophecy that was given about me and you-don’t-know-who.” Ace gave a single chuckle, and Holly smirked pleased he’d calmed down properly, “I’m supposed to defeat him with some power he doesn’t know about and considering you’re invisible and immune to… most magic. You’d be a pretty good power.”

Ace sagged, feeling a pang of growing guilt. What Holly said made sense, more sense than his theory did. Because in retrospec, if the Marines wanted information, they’d probably just torture him for it. They wouldn’t let him enjoy his last two weeks of life. Still: “That doesn’t explain what hit me.”

“I am going to assume that was the being that sent you here, whoever it is probably doesn’t want you messing with me since I’m supposed to help-” something dropped off a shelf nearby, and they both turned to look at it with equally baffled expressions. Then Holly’s grew triumphant as she shot him a superior look that just screamed ‘see! I told you so.’

Ace’s lips quirked, he was unable to help himself from being mildly amused.

Hope was dangerous Ace knew, it was dangerous to have hope in Impel down. But even as he knew that Ace knew that he was a pirate and he knew deep down he still held a distant hope that he’d maybe survive to live the year. Hoped his father and siblings wouldn’t let him die without a fight. It was the type of hope he had never carried as a child, a kind of faith he blamed entirely on Luffy.

Ace knew that he had a desperate hope that Holly was not a trick. That the thought of her being the result of marines had hurt in a way he couldn’t understand. It had been easy to believe it, that she’d been fake when he’d been in the dark and cold, when he’d been beaten by marines, and she hadn’t been in front of him. It was harder to smother hope when it was physically in front of him, when he could touch Holly, and she could fight back. It was harder to believe as anger, exasperation, and amusing rushed across her features. Or when she looked at him with concern and fondness that he knew a marine could never fake.

She could be real, that is what he wanted to believe. She could save him. She could be a real person - could be his future- or she could be a trap, he could kill her in this potential dream, and if she was a lie, he’d know the truth right then. But if she, then he’d ruin his only chance at escape.

So the question was, could he allow himself to hope or not? And the moment he thought it, all Ace could do was picture Luffy’s face and knew he’d have to at least try.

“Do you have ghosts in your world?” Ace asked.

“Yes, but people with magic can usually see them, and I can’t see anything.”

They continued to stare at each other, and eventually, Ace said with a touch of apology in his voice: “how about I cook something? Without burning it.” He tried to tease, to recover from what had just happened as he gave into hope slightly.

A part of Holly didn’t want to let him get away with it so easily, a small glimmer that screamed out a need for an apology. But as the locket at her neck twinged, she found himself too exhausted to care. Instead, Holly allowed them to move on; and she told herself she wasn’t overly bothered, told herself that Ron held his anger far longer than Ace did, and Ace had damned good reason to be tense and suspicious of her. Just like she did him. Just like she found it useful to know in the worst case, a ward would work against him. But Holly also knew that unless something drastic happened, it was very likely she’d never truly trust Ace, she’d never tell Ace about the horcruxs. Because as much as she believed her theory about Ace; paranoia had kept her alive, and until she didn’t need to be ‘alive’ anymore she’d hold onto it.

“That would be nice, I have a bit more reading to do on astral projection. I think I might be able to reverse what’s been done to you, but… in retrospect that doesn’t fix much.” They exited the bedroom together as Ace headed for the fridge. Holly meanwhile thought over her new problem and realization. If she was right about everything, then whoever sent Ace to her wanted her to save him. The problem was Holly had no idea how Ace was in a completely different world in an ‘unbreakable’ prison. While she was trying to end a war while timing her death correctly.

Technically, her agreement with Ace only said she had to send him back to his world, which knowing what she did about astral projection meant she could do that at any time. But now she knew the truth, sending him back would be sending him to his death at the hands of Marines. She would be sentencing him to death as much as Dumbledore had done her, and that didn’t sit at all right with her. She liked Ace, she didn’t want him to die.

Ace didn’t respond to her comment clearly, having realized the same thing. Instead, he gave a brief nod and strode toward the kitchen going through it like it was second nature, which made her assume he was used to the muggle technology her world had for the most part. Sitting back in her chair, Holly snatched up her book and returned to reading, offhand she wrote down a few theories about who could have sent Ace to her. But whoever it was would need magic and not haki, and they’d have to be aware of her problem. Not to mention, why Ace? If she thought about it in reverse, instead of who would pick her for him, she thought of who would pick him for her.

Holly lowered her book and glanced toward Ron’s room and made a face. Was it possible whoever it was… was dead? Which could mean… no, that wasn’t possible, if there were ghosts involved she’d be able to see them. Perhaps it was a wizard in Ace’s world, or even her own magic acting up? She was reasonably sure she wasn’t using magic, but who really knew, perhaps it was something passive in her blood.

In the end though, there was little point in dwelling on it. Holly had larger problems to deal with; issues like finding a way to save Ace from her world, not to mention hopefully saving her own life after he was gone.

She reached up and rubbed at her neck, the locket was dragging on her again and cutting into her skin. It was growing harder and harder to wear it now that she didn’t have Ron and Hermione to share in the burden. And Ace, he could neither wear it nor know what it was. Holly knew because of that she could never let Ace touch the locket, his mind would have no defenses at all against it.

Shaking her head, Holly returned to her book until Ace dropped a massive amount of food between them. He split the amount in half, leaving her gaping because Holly had never finished that amount of food in her life. It was more than even the Dursley’s ate times three.

“Ace this is too… much…” she trailed off as he opened his mouth and inhaled the food in front of him. She stared in quiet awe and disgust, he ate more than Dudley and Vernon put together and faster than Ron, and yet he was… muscular? How did that work?! Was that a guy thing? She’d seen plenty of boys at the Hogwarts table inhale their food like Ace was doing now, but the amount was unreal.

“Are you gon- eat? ‘S good.” He rumbled at her, meat hanging out of his mouth.

“Y-yeah.” She set aside her book and took a small amount. Holly took a tentative bite and found Ace staring her down, he’d finished his half and as Holly watched his hands twitched. Her brow rose. He was acting like he was only barely refraining from stealing and wolfing down her meal as well. “Do you want some of mine? I don’t eat much?” she never had, and probably never would either.

“Yes!” Ace grabbed for her plate and took a significant chunk of the meat he’d left there, which also vanished into the bottomless pit that was his stomach.

Snorting as she ate her smaller portion Holly had the feeling Ace and Ron would get along just fine if they ever met.

 

* * *

 

  
“Ready?”

Ace stood at her side, feet apart and fists up, he cracked his hands and neck then nodded to her. “Ready.”

Holly rolled up her sleeves, triple checked the locket was hidden and spelled under her neck so it couldn’t be removed if something went wrong. Then Holly cleared her throat, and together they spoke the same name.

“Voldemort.”


	5. Chapter 5

Holly had a problem, an undeniable, slightly annoying, eye-catching problem. A problem, by the name Portgas D. Ace.

Holly and Ace had started to purposely invoke Voldemort’s name to ‘gather information from the enemy,’ as Ace said. And Holly, who could handle Snatcher’s alone, could destroy them with Ace, invisible and immune to magic, assisting her. Which was an excellent thing and not her problem; no Holly’s problem was the fact that Ace, due to his state as an astral projection - that happened to be able to fight - appeared as his body currently existed. Which meant how he looked in prison, basically Ace was shirtless, twenty-four seven.

Most wouldn’t have precisely considered having a massively attractive man shirtless around them as a problem; especially once he started to fight. Ace, buff as he was, had muscles built for gawking, as he twisted and fought his body would smoothly move into these poses that she just- and what was she talking about again? Oh yes. Holly wasn’t most people; she wanted to be able to fight, defend, and duel with the snatchers to keep up her training, to ensure she didn’t become too comfortable when she would have to fight Voldemort soon. But every invocation of Voldemort’s name caused Ace to fight, and Holly couldn’t keep her train of thought once he did so.

Holly stared, she could admit it. Ace was a god of war, body moving elegantly in practiced movements. His hair would swing, strands laying against his skin as he worked up a light sweat before they started. And the smile, the smile was enough to knock her out. When Ace fought, this expression would cross his face, one she never saw outside a battle that was just- she didn’t have words for it. It made her heart skip a beat, made her mouth drop open, made her entire focus vanish into the wind-

The form, the stretch, the kick, the punch, she stared and stared and stared- and sidestepped a spell heading for her head, trying to get back into the battle- and then Ace rushed across the field right past her.

So yes, Holly had a bit of a problem focusing. To be fair to herself, the Snatchers were incredibly inbred, and frankly, they were weak; they couldn’t hold her attention for long, not while Ace was doing all that.

“Alright there, Holly?”

“Err, yeah?” she snapped to attention as Ace knocked out the last Snatcher and her gaze snapped up to meet his- and bloody hell, he’d noticed. He was looking at her in intense amusement, and stretched- yes please, thank you- Ace snorted as she blanked her expression trying to recover a small amount.

“You should work on that distraction, do that in a large battle and you’ll get someone, like yourself, killed.” And there went her good mood. Holly forced the corners of her lips up, but the smile she plastered on her face got nowhere close to her eyes. As was true every time Ace cautioned her about her weaknesses in battle and the potential costs, he always used her life in danger as the warning, and Holly knew it wouldn’t really matter if she filled in those holes in her defenses. They existed for a reason, those holes were the same ones Dumbledore had purposely left in when he’d trained her, the same ones she thought in her darkest moments perhaps had been left there on purpose.

“I’ll try.” She lied and hated that she had, Holly put a lot of effort into staying as honest as possible with Ace. But her impending death and the Horcruxes, those alone she kept to herself, Holly refused to allow Ace to take that burden on. Refused to allow him to find out the truth of her fate; he didn’t need to know, he wouldn’t be around to see it happen.

“Good.” Ace strode toward her side, “If you didn’t I might have to teach you the basics of observation haki… would help with your aim and dodging.”

Holly perked straight up. Haki, all the versions of it, had highly interested her. Doubly so when Ace explained that it was willpower and anyone was capable of using it. She knew it could help immensely with the fight against Voldemort; it could also be ‘the power the Dark Lord knew not,’ and she was most eager to learn and see if that was true. “Now, who do you want to start with?” Ace made a bit of a hand motion copying the general movement for casting a spell. Holly inclined her head, focusing on the real reason they were out there and strode toward the closest Snatcher stooping beside them.

“Right, let's see what we get.” Holly peeled open the man’s eyes and leveled her wand in front of them before casting: “Legillimens.” Holly's eyes glazed over slightly as she dove into the man’s memories.

Ace squatted beside her keeping his expression as blank as he dared. The memory reading didn’t overly bother him, it was fairly obvious when she was doing it, so he felt secure in the knowledge that she wasn’t reading his mind. Ace was aware that if her ability was real and she could read his mind, then she too was real; while Ace highly doubted a Marine creating this entire thing could also read minds. So at most, the Marines or Holly would only get information from his loose tongue or expression, both of which were growing increasingly difficult to control around Holly. Thankfully, on the reverse, Holly was basically an open book to him, and that wasn’t just because of how much he was watching her; which he was, a lot.

He’d noticed her staring, saw the attraction she was blatantly showing him, and he knew it was returned. He wanted nothing more than to further ruin her messy black locks, to devourer her lips, to see what was under that robe of hers. But he didn’t have a physical body, he was trapped within Impel down, and as attracted to her as he was, he could not forget that information. Perhaps once he was free, when he was back with his family and safe, when her war was won, and they were both free. Maybe then they could look into what they shared and explore a relationship.

But until he knew he could trust her Ace wouldn’t allow their relationship to go anywhere but allies working together. Allies that hopefully did not end like most pirate allies did.

No matter how much Holly kept thinking to herself: ‘maybe just once, before I-’

Holly winced and blinked several times as she ended the spell on the Snatcher. Rubbing her eyes lightly, she put away her wand and turned toward Ace.

“So, what did you see?” he asked.

“Well…”

Holly fell into the memory like she would have a pensive, landing lightly in Knockturn Alley she found herself surrounded by shady figures and shadier buildings. Holly rolled her eyes skyward wondering not for the first time why people of Knockturn Alley dressed that way. The average shopper went out of their way to dress like thieves in the Alley; they had no need to do so Holly knew, she’d been in the Alley herself multiple times and was well aware there were perfectly legitimate shops within; like the location Hagrid got his gardening supplies, and where she personally went for her dueling gear.

The Snatcher she was reading the memories of stalked through the Alley, and she followed idly noting the wanted posters hanging everywhere. Holly saw Ron and Hermione were still wanted in the memory, as were many of her school-mates that she knew had been Muggle-born. Her own name was out and about as well, her face looking down at her; it was covering every surface in the Alley as if people had forgotten what she looked like. The Snatcher bypassed these all and strode into a new shop that had been opened after she’d gone on the run. The shop was marked by a large death eater symbol, and Holly made a face at it before following the man in.

Inside was a restaurant looking area coupled with a bar, one wall was covered in wanted posters, and the Snatcher walked straight toward it to peruse. Holly personally allowed her eyes to scan and felt her heart sink as a pair of younger snatchers entered the building. Struggling between them was a young girl, perhaps sixteen, a Ravenclaw Muggleborn Holly realized. The girl was carted forward in tears begging to the pair she clearly recognized as her own upperclassmen to let her go. The girl went ignored as the snatchers exchanged a few words with the bartender before the girl was dragged to the back and out of Holly’s sight.

Holly grimaced as she realized what this place was and yanked out of the Snatcher’s memories.

“A bounty building,” Ace surmised when she finished describing what she’d seen, “they’re putting out wanted posters to people of ‘Muggle’ descent, then collecting them there. Unfortunately, there’s no telling what happens to anyone captured after they’ve been brought there, I can imagine it’s far from pleasant.” Ace had a nasty taste in his mouth over it, he could make a few educated guesses, and each was worse than the last. Worse because Ace had seen some deplorable things in his own world and those were saved for actual criminals for the most part; Ace wondered however if Holly had any inkling of what he did.

Regardless he said: “Not exactly the big fish we’re looking for though.” He could make it work; if they followed up the chain one person to the next, they’d eventually end up with a sea-king. He knew she could handle Snatchers just fine, dodging them even while distracted. They were both frankly sleeping when it came to fights with the grunts, so a level up would give him a better idea of the scale for wizards and for Holly as well. Though ideally, he’d spar with her before they did anything too dangerous; such as, for example, destroying a bounty building where her enemies gathered.

“We could… we could save them? Destroy the building and…” she trailed off angrily, and it reminded him of Sabo, of Sabo’s great desire to help people and yet being too weak, too young, and too alone to do much.

“They’d build another building,” Ace countered her even as he started to plan around her suggestion, “and with magic, they’d do it quickly.”

“I’ll just destroy that one too.” Holly’s hand reached up and brushed the locket ever aware of the priceless item around her neck. If she was captured doing this then it might get stolen which would be beyond a disaster but- but that girl was sixteen, sixteen, she was only a year younger than Holly was. “I can’t just leave people my age and younger too-” she couldn’t finish, Holly didn’t want to imagine what the Death Eater’s had done to that girl and younger. She shook her head, sending her hair flying.

“Alright,” Ace said, placing his hands on his waist, “a bounty place should be simple to break into, and the people that run it will have much more information than these lot.” He jerked a thumb at the unconscious Snatchers. “They won’t stand a chance against you, let alone me. We just need a disguise for you to get to this place; not one with magic though, they can probably see through that,” he eyed her, “you ever tried dyeing your hair?”

Holly’s eyes went a bit wide, she’d thought… why did she keep thinking Ace was going to ridicule her impulses and ideas? He worked with her, adjusted to match her, and covered her weaknesses without complaint. He hadn’t judged her for not killing, had planned around what she wanted and needed. It was about time she worked with him in return and stopped assuming he was going to dismiss her like so many others.

“I’d like to spar before we go though,” Ace continued, “to get an idea of your strength, speed, and weaknesses when you have a stronger opponent. Out of fairness, we’ll call a spell going through me a point to you.” He cracked his hands and neck, “fifty fights a day should do it.”

“What?” Holly recoiled a bit as Ace stepped over a Snatcher toward her, “now?”

“No time like the present.” Especially considering how little time he had left, “on the count of three. Three-”

“Ace hold on what about the Snatchers-”

“Two.”

“More could show up, and I’ll have to clean the entire area of magic when we’re done, it’ll take forever-”

“One- GO!”

Holly wrenched her wand up, hurling a shield between herself and Ace aware now of how quickly he could move. A split second later Ace’s fist cracked against it, and the entire glittering wall shuddered and gave way. Holly quickly re-estimated how much power she’d have to put into her shields to ensure they didn’t collapse under Ace’s influence before she started to chain attacks. From his speed, she knew it would be incredibly difficult to hit him, and she knew running from or dodging him was highly unlikely to work, he’d just catch her. Instead, she’d have to work on swiftly casting as many spells as she could in a wide arc to force him away from her since one hit was a point to her.

One spell coated the ground in ice, another started to layer wards directly around her, a third sent Ace twisting out of the way, and Holly didn’t even pay attention to his state this time; she was focused on winning. On dueling someone worthy and powerful, on fighting with someone who challenged her as no one had since Dumbledore’s death and everything changing. Lights flashed as Ace dodged between them- until the last one she cast, which he just took.

Ace skidded to a stop and swore. “Forgot I wasn’t fire! Okay, let's go again that's a win for you.” He retook his spot and started to countdown-

“What the hell does that mean ‘forgot I wasn’t fire,’ what?!” she said before he got to ‘two.’

“It’s my devil-fruit power.”

Holly snapped her fingers: “Okay that I remember, but you didn’t say anything about fire, how does it work? What does it do?”

“It makes me fire, I can transform into it, I can breathe it, use it, live in it. Fire is me, and I’m fire.” Ace explained to her loosely, his hand circling vaguely in the air.

“But you haven’t used it here.”

“Can’t.” He shook his wrist at her, and remembered a moment later that his chains didn’t come with him to this world, “in prison they have these chains, sea-stone, they’re used to prevent a devil-fruit user from using their abilities. I have… a couple of them.” That was an understatement by a large margin, he was bogged down by them. “With them, I can’t use my fire in any way.”

“But you’re made of fire.” Holly, as always, went straight to the point, “isn’t that like cutting off a part of you?”

Ace rubbed the back of his neck trying to hedge an answer, to not admit how bad it really was. In the end, Holly had been, as far as he knew, honest with him, so he was honest with her. “Yeah, it’s… painful. I’m constantly cold, and it feels like someone cut me in half. But there’s not much I can do about it while I’m wearing them… it’s better here though, I can’t quite feel it and the fire you have out at nights helps a lot.”

Holly bit her lip as Ace stretched a bit to get ready to go again. She was stuck though, stuck on picturing someone blocking out her magic and forcing her to live like that; she couldn’t imagine it. These sea-stone chains - which she realized Ace had mentioned before - sounded, for lack of a better word, terrible. It certainly explained why Ace sat so close to her camp and house-fire though. If he was made of flames, the source of it being so close had to be soothing. Like being magically drained and sitting on a ley-line. Though she wished she’d known earlier, Holly could alter the tent to leave a fire in Ace’s room, and she could triple the temperature inside it as well. Holly always preferred the heat, and she’d purposely kept the tent cooler because Hermione and Ron both liked it cold, Ace it seemed was far more like her.

“Two, one-go!”

“Hey! That’s a terrible count!” she hollered as Ace got right into her lacking guard and swatted her head calling his strike a win, though considering what he’d done to the snatchers with a similar blow, he was right to do so.

“Call it haki training,” he grinned boyishly at her, “to learn observation I get to blind-fold you and throw rocks at your head until you learn to use haki instinctively.”

“That _cannot_ be true.”

“Oh-ho it is, Jozu loves training newbies because he gets to do it to them.”

“Oh is that so? Three-two-one-go!” she called suddenly and hurled spells at Ace hoping to catch him off his guard; however Ace, unlike Holly, had haki, so he easily dodged. While Holly noted another name to the back of her mind, so far that was five Ace had or almost had dropped.

Holly hid a smile, Ace was beginning to relax around her.

A snatcher groaned and Ace casually trodded on his head, knocking him out again as they continued.

 

* * *

 

A woman strode through Diagon Alley with her head up and her posture confident. She glared down anyone who looked at her wrong or at all, and most that did quickly looked away. People avoided her eerie blue eyes that seemed unnatural in color, many were convinced they had to be fake, except they had made it past the wards placed around the Alley to remove glamors, illusions, and potions, so they had to be real. The woman flicked her brown hair back revealing her plain forehead as she glanced toward Knockturn Alley, her head tilted as if she was listening to someone before she strode down the street itself and out of sight. Several breathed out in relief having assumed she, like most of those that visited Diagon lately, was there because she’d wanted to join the dark lord. They had little idea that under the wig, the prescription contacts, and the makeup, their savior was standing right before them.

“Reminds me of home.” Ace told Holly as he strode beside her through the Alley; he didn’t bother avoiding anyone since Ace could go right through them and the fact that he did kept making Holly twitch. He, unlike Holly, could actually look around as much as he wanted, so he scanned the area watching for anyone paying Holly a little too much attention, which none were as of yet. Holly, however, had to keep her focus and confidence up to make it seem like she was another person entirely. For as she’d explained to Ace, generally in magical public areas she’d kept her head down and her hair on her forehead to hide her celebrity status; so when disguising her, they’d done the exact opposite. “Shady enough to be- the island where I’m from, though it’s a bit more obviously downtrodden for the richer areas.”

Ace glanced toward Holly and smirked when she made an aborted motion to wipe her eyes.

“That's horrible, and so are these.” She muttered his way. The contacts had been an ordeal, requiring them to head into the Muggle world to get Holly a pair of prescription color contacts which they’d expedited to have as soon as possible. Holly instantly hated them, and Ace had physically held her eyes open to shove them in to disguise her distinct green eyes. “They’re itchy.” She whined.

“It’s temporary.” He teased even though he’d never worn them. He glanced away again amused at her, but still missing the now-familiar green shade of her eyes.

“There it is,” Holly said as the building came into view.

Holly continued on not pausing as she made a straight line toward her destination. Ace meanwhile rushed forward to round the building looking for exits and then darted inside having found only one. Since he couldn’t be seen and wasn’t exactly corporeal, he was the perfect scout. Within he counted the number of people inside, each one they’d have to defeat as quickly as possible, so no one escaped, and no alarms were set off. Once that was done they’d have to discover what was in the back; he’d have to do it later though as Holly was just entering.

She strode in casually dropping a ward stone near the door to prevent apparition; Holly had spent most of the night building it according to one of Hermione’s books. Then ignoring the brief looks she got, Holly moved toward the wanted board as if she had been there all the time. Ace moved opposite her to the far side of the room and a table that was out of sight of the others. In a swift strike, he knocked out the pair sitting there and lowered them to their table. Then he moved on as Holly plucked a poster off the wall and turned toward the room. Her first spell caught the bartender by surprise, he slumped over without warning. Following that two people at the back of the room hit the ground as Ace took them out before he launched over a table toward the front door.

All hell broke loose as Snatchers rushed to attack her, not a single one attempting to escape through the door Ace was guarding. Which gave him a front-row seat to the battle.

The coloring was wrong, her hair too light and her eyes too blue. But her smile, the way she lit up when she was dueling, that was the woman he was falling for. Ace watched Holly as she twisted and turned, dodging under spells in a way that he instantly recognized as his own. Their fifty battles for the last few days were helping her drastically when it came to physical fighting. Holly was now correctly dodging and occasionally going for the solar plexus and throat. Holly might not be using haki yet, but by the time he left, she would be-

_‘By the time he left?’_

“Done,” Holly called striding into the middle of the room. She flicked her wand casually behind her; a spell struck the wall, and every wanted poster there burst into flames, all but her own which was in her hand. Ace eagerly moved forward and stole it from her fingers curious to see it in closer detail. The image they had of Holly was recent, it had been taken when she’d been leaving Hogwarts for the last time in her sixth year. At the time Luna had amused her and Holly had been between sorrowful over Dumbledore, pensive over her impending death, and slightly smiling because of Luna. It was, Ace thought, a perfect wanted poster.

Teasingly Ace lifted the picture and wiggled it in front of her face: “I do believe I was worth more, but this is certainly a hefty first bounty.” Truthfully Ace wasn’t sure of the conversion rates from Galleons to Beri, so in all reality, she could be worth anything from a typical East Blue pirate to a yonko.

Holly gave a laugh as her eyes crinkled attractively; her hand reached up as she grabbed playfully at the poster which Ace yanked out of her range. Taller than her he rolled up the picture and then stuffed it into his pants pocket. “I’m keeping it.” He declared having no idea if he could or not.

“Ace!” Holly grabbed for it again, forgetting where she was. He did that to her, made her forget how tense the situation was. He made her forget she had been alone, that she was going to die, that the locket was constantly draining at her. Ace made her forget about the war, and it was because of that reason alone that she kept thinking the words: _‘I want, I want, I want.’_

But life was never that easy, and they remembered what they had to do, and they both focused up. Neither of them needed to speak as they moved toward the back door Holly had seen in the memory. Holly didn’t complain or even mention it as Ace automatically took point and stuck his head through the back-door. He ghosted straight through it after a moment, and Holly opened it to follow. The door itself led to a staircase, and soundlessly they descended them, occasionally glancing at each other.

In the basement, they found a hallway with five rooms. Wordlessly Ace and Holly split up, Ace took the left and Holly the right. Ace stuck his head in the first door as Holly opened another and vanished within. The first room Ace discovered was a storage room for the bar and after a quick glance, and resisting his urge to eat everything, he moved on. The next room had him enter it fully once he recognized what it was. A table in the middle of the room with shackles on the armrests. Blood across the table, the floor, the wall behind, and the chains, most was dried but some was unfortunately fresh. It was an interrogation room, and it had been used often. Unfortunately Ace knew then that the people who had been brought here were long gone and the chances they were alive were slim.

Holly would be devastated.

Wishing not for the first time he could use his fire to burn the whole place down Ace left to check the last of his rooms, which was empty. Ace then went for the left wondering why only one of the doors on the right had been opened. “Holly?” he called as he approached, had she found something?

Silence met his question.

His stomach sank, Ace instantly pictured the worst as he sprinted forward. He flew around the corner, his hand on the door and his hair in his face, to look inside. Ace found Holly beside a desk looking at some papers. All color had vanished from her face, her hands shook, and she didn’t so much as twitch when he called her name.

“Holly?” He stepped forward, noting the papers on the table spread out haphazardly. Each was a folder on someone who had been through the bounty building, they each had a picture of the person in the interrogation room Ace had seen. Feeling his gut sink Ace leaned up and peered at the papers in Holly’s hands and at the names there. He sucked in a sharp breath; he didn’t need to see past the first page to recognize them. Their images was all over the room he slept in, their faces and stories were things he’d heard about often when it came to Holly. Their names were often on her lips, and signs of their presence were all over the tent itself.

Right there before them both were the bruised moving faces of Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger.


	6. Chapter 6

“Considering she’s never been camping before in her life; the bloody woman should have reused some of the campsites we brought her too!” Ron grumbled as he paced in the forest clearing he and Hermione were standing in. Nearby Hermione knelt on a transfigured carpet with a detailed map in her hands, with a furrowed brow she inspected the map and muttered to herself. Personally, Hermione agreed with what Ron had said. Yet after a dozen campsites visited and tagged so they’d know if Holly camped there, they were still coming up empty. Which unfortunately meant locating Holly was becoming extremely difficult.

The past few months had not been kind to Hermione and Ron, not since the very moment Ron apparated in an uncontrolled rage. The instant Ron landed away from the girls, he realized his mistake; the reason for his twisted thoughts and emotions had been the locket.

Ron had intended to go right back when Hermione landed beside him, tracking his magic to the location he’d chosen to get away from them. They’d stared at each other, continuously drawn in a way neither of them could explain. Then Ron had blurted out a desperate apology, and Hermione had thrown herself into his arms, forgiving him for what he’d been unable to defend himself from. Ron did not have occlumency, he had no defenses against the Horcrux’s poison, and his more emotional mind, unlike opposed to Hermione’s, had ensured he’d been corrupted quickly.

With Hermione in his arms, Ron had confessed his biggest fear that he’d messed up for the last time, that this time Holly wouldn’t forgive him. And Ron honestly didn’t believe he deserved forgiveness, not that time. He’d abandoned Holly in the middle of a war, there was no going back from that he thought.

Hermione took him by the arms and leaned back with a watery smiled before she said: “Oh Ron! It’s okay. Holly sent me to get you. She knows what the locket was doing, and she doesn’t blame you. Now, let’s go back to her.” As she spoke, Ron was not comforted. He’d always been the emotional one in the group and frankly, understood his emotions far better than the girls. Which often meant Ron knew what the girls felt before they did. Which is why he understood immediately what Holly had done.

By the time they arrived back at the campsite, Holly in the tent was gone and Holly’s magical signature had been wiped from the area. She had fled ensuring that they could not follow even if they wanted to. Ron and Hermione had certainly tried regardless of that. They’d spent the next fourth months scouring the countryside for her. Occasionally they stayed with Bill and Fleur in their home and sometimes pitched with a muggle tent that Hermione had been enchanting. Otherwise, they grew closer, though as Bill would say, perhaps too close.

Ron and Hermione’s relationship had built, and they had realized their feelings for each other, which was positive. However, trapped in a small muggle tent for months on end in the middle of a war, after seeing no one but each other for that long, and after worrying endlessly about Holly the entire time; a toll had been taken out of their patience.

Eventually, something had to give. Ron and Hermione's souls screamed of stress, their bags had bags, their bodies were growing weaker and weaker with the lack of food. And the constant wariness of the war and the knowledge of the deaths building up around them hit them harder every day. Then it happened; an explosion built from being too close to each other, a fight growing from the stress and the fear, and a single mistake.

“Oh god.” Hermione suddenly breathed as she stared down at the map, “no no no no!” she’d finally put two and two together. It had bothered her endlessly for the last few months, why had Holly sent them away? Why had she fled without a word? Why Holly had kept trying to escape them after turning seventeen? Hermione finally realized the truth, about the connection, about Holly’s silence and anguish when Dumbledore had left them, the facts she must have already known-

“What,” Ron asked, stopping his pacing to stand beside Hermione.

“It’s the only thing that makes sense! The reason she chased us off Ron! Holly must know! She knows!”

“Knows what?”

“She’s a Horcrux…” Hermione pressed her hand to her mouth, “her scar, the connection! Holly is a Horcrux. That’s the reason she can see Voldemort’s memories, the reason occlumency doesn’t work on her dreams, it’s why she saw Nagini when it attacked your dad. They’re both living Horcruxes!”

“No,” Ron said firmly taking a step away from his girlfriend, “no, because if that’s true, the reason she left is-”

“She’s going to kill herself.” Hermione felt her eyes burn as she staggered away from her map and from Ron, “she probably already has.”

“NO!” he fisted his hands and roared out the word, “How could you say that! Holly wouldn’t just kill herself!” His distant mind screamed denials. Holly still had things to do; she wouldn’t do it until the locket, and the other Horcruxes were destroyed. Holly was the type of individual who would not leave a job unfinished. She’d be the last one to go, the last Horcrux, and they’d-

“Of course she would!” Hermione’s mind worked ever on, realizing those little things and those huge hints that everything, everything had been a giant set-up. A trap designed to kill Holly. “She’s a self-sacrificing moron, and it’s Dumbledore’s bloody fault! All our lives he’s been training her to do exactly this! Don’t you think it’s a little suspicious that he kept sending Holly back to those Muggles and rewarding us for risking our damn lives year after year!”

“Dumbledore wouldn’t-”

“He did!” Hermione grabbed her head, “he did! Everything has been leading up to this. The stone in first year that just so happened to be guarded by traps an eleven-year-old could get through. The basilisk, how had it taken us to figure out the beast was a snake and in the bathroom! Someone should have asked Myrtle years ago she was right there! And Sirius, Dumbledore was the one who performed the Fidilous charm, how did he not know the secret keeper was swapped!” she was growing increasingly panicked, “everything was for this, he knew. He’s been twisting Holly’s life and our lives to ensure this happened!”

“Hermione, not everything is a conspiracy! Dumbledore is a great man, and he loved Holly! He wouldn’t do this-”

“HE DID! He wanted Holly dead, wanted the Horcrux dead. Anything to kill-

“-NO WAIT-”

“-Voldemort!” Their eyes flew wide in horror, and cracks from snatchers sounded around them, as they were out-numbered in an instant and forced to flee.

 

* * *

 

“Holly.” Ace stepped toward her and forcefully put his hands on the folders. He understood what she was thinking, what was going through her head at that moment, he’d done it himself countless times. He blamed himself, for Sabo and for Thatch, for every crew member that died at the sea. He understood, he did, which meant he knew how to prioritize. He knew when to feel, and when to fight tooth and nail to ensure the people he cared about were given the opportunity to live. It had been why he’d ran for Marco when he’d found Thatch, instead of after Thatch’s killer, until he’d known without a doubt that Thatch wasn’t going to make it.

Black rushed up Ace’s hands as he snatched the folder from Holly’s limp fingers. Without it in her direct sights, she sank to the ground staring at her empty hands with a blank emotionless gaze. Ace temporarily left her there as he hurriedly flipped through the parchments to find the information he needed. It was possible, very possible, that Ron and Hermione were not yet dead. And it there was a chance he had to take it for the good of Holly’s sanity and his own future.

Ace’s teeth ground together, where was it, where was it? A symbol, a single sign- please let her siblings be alive; there! “Holly!” he slammed the papers together and squatted beside her, “Holly! Who are the Malfoy’s?”

“My fault- Ron and Hermione are- no no no no- I sent them away- my fault, I sent them away, I did that, they’re- they’re- my fault, I…”

“HOLLY!” Ace dropped the folder and slapped his hands on each side of her face and wrenched her chin up to force her to look at him, “they might be alive, but they won’t be so for long, you need to focus and shove that shit back. Focus on me, and tell me who the Malfoy’s are!”

Her eyes might have cleared slightly at his words. It was hard to tell with those damnable blue contacts which he was profoundly regretting at that moment. “The- the Malfoy’s… that's, that’s Draco, Lucius and… and Narcissa. They’re death eaters, Draco… he let them into the school, Dumbledore died because of him… him and Snape-”

He shook her to refocus her, “can you find them?”

She lifted her head more, and Ace saw a green glow grow to life behind the blue of her contacts. As Holly locked her gaze with his and snarled out a furious and hissing: “Yes.”

She didn’t feel it when the locket heated up victoriously, or when it started to burn. It’s voice hissed in the back of her head egging her on, twisting her fear into something far more violent and panicked to get back to its true owner-

“Lead the way.”

Holly and Ace stood together, he snatched the folders from the table and collected them together in a rush. He knew if Holly were more focused, she’d want to bring them to ensure everyone who passed through the building was saved and he had a feeling if he left them they’d permanently lose that information. Ace had guessed right when they reached the stairs, and Holly hurled a bright red spell behind them. Glancing back he witnessed the interrogation room, and the office burst into flames, Holly was burning the building down as he’d desired to do already. Ace smirked, he basked in the familiar heat not wondering if he could be burned by flames while wearing sea-stone, and he followed Holly up the stairs toward the bar area.

She strode ahead of him like a warrior on a warpath. Holly had accepted her furious mission and was going to destroy anything in her way. Ace watched her in quiet awe, wondering what she’d look like sailing a ship. What Holly would look like free of the pressures of war on her shoulders. When she could just do and enjoy as a pirate would. He had a feeling it would be a glorious image matching the one she held right then.

Holly made a straight line for the bartender and didn’t waste a moment yanking up the man’s face and forcing herself into his mind. She cast the spell without a single word, without even her wand in her hand and proved then that she didn’t need it. Ace had already suspected that was the case, that the stick was a tool and nothing more, now he had his proof. However, that wasn’t the time to talk about it or to reveal he knew she could use magic without it. That bit of information he’d still hold close, for as must as he was beginning to believe this was real, he was still unwilling to put his family’s life on that belief.

Regardless as Ace waited for her to scour the man's mind for the information they needed, he gave a considering look around the bar. There were half a dozen people laid out, stunned and unconscious for the extended future. There was also smoke already escaping the basement as the flames below built, and should he and Holly leave these people where they were, they’d be soon be burning alive.

As he’d told Holly several times already, he was a pirate, one that controlled the power of fire. He’d killed before; he’d burnt someone alive before, he couldn’t have helped it considering he was made of flames. Still, he wasn’t entirely indifferent to all these people dying, but Holly would be the exact opposite of apathetic. When she was calmer, when she realized what she’d done, the knowledge would hurt her. So clicking his teeth together, Ace strode across the bar and started to drag, carry, and cart the snatchers out of the building where he dumped them in a heap. No one so much as blinked an eye as the people moved past by an invisible force, assuming automatically it was a spell.

Finishing with his self-assumed mission, one that resulted in a couple of strangers receiving a few broken bones and noses - which Ace might have purposely ensured - Ace turned to Holly’s side just as she yanked her mind from the bar-tenders head.

“Two days ago,” she told him, “they were brought in two days ago and delivered to the Malfoy’s manor yesterday, and I know exactly where that is now.” She straightened as fire licked at the back door and smoke billowed overhead.

“Then what are we waiting for?” he offered his hand to Holly. She lifted her head and suddenly reached up and wrenched the wig off her head, he watched her pull out the contacts in her eyes with minimal success, it ruined the badass image she was throwing off and made him chuckle. Then she returned her glasses to her eyes and swiped away the makeup on her forehead, smearing it slightly into her hair. Finally, she offered her make-up covered hand toward him, grasping it firmly.

“Let’s do it.” She stated, and together they twisted away with a crack.

 

* * *

 

The Malfoy Manor was extravagant and as obnoxious as the building Sabo’s family had lived in. The building itself was the most definite sign that even in another world, the rich like to show off and dismiss the poor. According to Holly, it used to have white columns, too many windows to count, an extensive back yard with a maze of hedges - that made Holly beyond twitchy, a crystal clear pool, and honest to god peacocks running around. Now however much of that was marred by Voldemort’s presence in the Malfoy home during the previous year.

“This is something out of a horror story,” Ace muttered. The hedges were growing out of control twisting around them like grasping arms, the pristine white of the manor was blackened by spell damage, the peacocks were nothing more than rotting corpses, and the pond had a body in it that Ace did not want to see more detail of. The area was a disaster and did not resemble its former looks at all.

“Malfoy, err… Draco, he used to brag about this place all the time. By the time I was twelve, I could probably describe it better than I could my own house.” She carefully slammed her heel into a vine attempting to grab her. A similar plant had been something she’d had considerable trouble with in her fourth year, it had tied her up and nearly choked her to death before she’d escaped. Now however Holly had no problems with something so simple. It was true in the end, the twi-wizard tournament had not been intended for a fourteen-year-old. “By the time we were sixteen, he stopped talking about it entirely.” Holly rolled her eyes skyward, “I told Hermione and Ron that was suspicious, and I told the Order that Vo- you-know-who and the death eaters had to be staying there. But no one believed me about it.”

Ace snatched out his hand and snatched a vine charging toward Holly’s head and ripped it in half: “Why haven’t we checked this location for the sea-king then?”

Holly made a face, once again she’d been given the opportunity to tell Ace about the Horcruxes, and yet she knew she absolutely could not. She dared not speak of them around this place, and even if she was beginning to trust Ace with their knowledge and why they had to be destroyed before Voldemort, she was still heavily hesitating.

Not looking Ace’s way, Holly hedged her answer a bit: “He’s got control of the magical world now, beyond a few bits of resistance; there’s little reason to remain at the Malfoy Manor when he could live anywhere he wanted.” Which was true, she was reasonably certain Voldemort was not at Malfoy manor.

Ace hummed a non-committal response to that loosely accepting it, if he were an evil overlord bent on mass-murder he’d probably have his own place too.

They walked passed a break in the hedges, through the vines was a small pale body with its throat slit. Holly paused, giving it a saddened expression.

“What is that?” Ace whispered, trying to give the deceased creature some respect as he spotted it as well. Ace had seen strange being all over the Grand-Line and knew not to judge appearance, anything could be intelligent enough to take offense, but he’d never seen anything quite like it.

“A house-elf.” Holly stepped forward and grabbed the vines, yanking them apart so she could step through. She could have used magic, but Holly wasn’t sure if there were any wards on the property to track magic use and she’d rather get in and out of the manor without being noticed. “They’re servants to wizards, slaves really depending on who owns them.” Kneeling beside the too-small body, Holly reached up and closed its tennis-ball sized eyes. It was a recent death, the poor thing had bled out, leaving behind a long bloodied trail while trying to find a quiet place to die. “I wonder if Dobby knew him…” she immediately made a face as she spoke, she’d forgotten about Dobby in her panic, he could have helped her and Ace sneak in and find the manor.

“Who?” Ace squatted beside the ‘elf’ and wished he had a bit of flame to use. He’d like to give the creature a proper burial, but they didn’t have time to dig a hole, cremation would have been far faster and still respectful.

“Well, Dobby was the elf attempting to warn me about the basilisk, I mentioned it before right?”

“I vaguely remember that.” And the enormous scar marking her upper arm.

“So, Lucius Malfoy was his owner, and he crooked up an actual ‘plot’ with a diary-” There was her in to tell Ace about Horcruxes once more, “-which possessed a girl at school, and unleashed the bloody thing. Long story short, I tricked Malfoy into releasing Dobby, and he's been eternally loyal to me since then. In retrospect, I probably could have asked him to bring us here.”

Ace flapped a dismissive hand as they continued on their path, leaving the small creature behind. “We made it here, it doesn’t matter how.”

“I suppose.”

They rounded a corner while keeping the building in sight and paused; an enormous snake lay in the middle of the overgrown path. For a moment Holly’s heart jumped, not because of it’s size or danger, but rather because for a single moment, she thought it was Nagini which would have been extremely lucky. Nagini, she knew, was a Horcrux, and the creature was something she’d eventually have to kill. Unfortunately, this was a regular snake. To Ace used to the snakes of the Grand-line and Dawn island, and to Holly used to Nagini and a basilisk, it was a bit… boring.

The snake upon noticing them attacked. It struck out toward the single visible individual before it, snapping at Holly’s head in response to being startled. Ace snapped out his hand instantly aware Holly wasn’t nearly as fast as he was and might not be able to avoid the strike. His fingers locked around the beasts head and he yanked it away from her ready to kill and eat it. When Holly started to hiss.

Ace shot her a surprised look that grew intrigued when the snake started to hiss at her in return.

“You speak snake?” he asked incredulously. That was perfect, Haruta was terrified of snakes, he could already see the pranking material.

“An unfortunate side effect,” Holly grumbled slipping out of parseltongue for a moment, she was getting better at telling which language she was speaking lately. Holly, however, was unaware of the large hint she’d just given Ace, a sentence he’d use later when all the small comments came together to make a clear picture. Instead, she was focused on bribing the snake into giving her information. Then, when that failed, threatening its death, which went over better, for her.

Ace stood silently by as Holly had a full conversation with a snake, it was as entertaining to him as Luffy attempting to communicate with a group of monkeys after Sabo tricked him, or when Namur had spoken to fish trying to convince them to offer themselves up for dinner. When the conversation ended, Holly nodded and explained what had been talked about, giving him information about the situation, from a snake.

“Hermione and Ron are in there, but so are the Malfoy’s and Bellatrix. They’ve called you-don’t-know-who though, so we need to be fast. They’re dead the moment he arrives.”

“Or he is.” Ace commented reeling back his arm and hurling the snake away from them at full strength, figuring they were done with it, “we could always just kill him now?”

There it was again, Holly grimaced and tried to change the subject once more. Holly couldn’t tell him the truth, she couldn’t tell Ace that she couldn’t fight Voldemort until the Horcruxes were destroyed, nor could Holly tell him she wouldn’t survive the fight either. Ace didn’t know that he’d be free and back in his world permanently before that battle occurred.

“Maybe.” Holly said, feeling guilty as she avoided telling him again about the truth, “let's get in there.”

Holly strode forward toward the building, eying it to distract herself, she didn’t turn to look back at Ace who took a moment to watch her. His suspicions about her were growing once more because he knew now that she was hiding something from him. Holly was avoiding fighting Voldemort that was plain; Ace knew without a doubt that she was, what he didn’t know was why. Ace wanted to say it was because his original theory was correct. If this were a story designed by a marine, the idea would be to keep him inside it, and Voldemort’s death would end the war and therefore end the story. In reality however, as much as Ace wanted to believe that theory, he also didn’t. He was slowly beginning to trust in Holly, and he knew her avoidance of Voldemort might be something as simple as fear.

He’d have to wait and see.

“Ace, can you give me a boost?”

Ace stepped forward, joining Holly beside the manor as she peered up at a window above them. “Sure,” he said, as he stood beside the window itself and linked his fingers together. Holly gave him a smile, the one that made his stomach twist with nervous energy and made him want, and she rushed toward him. Holly’s booted heel hit his hands, and Ace hurled her upward. Her fingers caught the end of the window, and she boosted herself up with pure arm strength before she opened the window and slipped inside.

Eying the distance himself Ace gave himself a small space to run, he could handle the jump without problem he knew, and he charged ready to launch up and grab the windowsill to pull himself in; when Holly reached out her hand and caught his own. They paused there, Ace holding the window and her hand, Holly leaning out of it while bracing against the inside so she didn’t fall out. Both of them thought it at that moment, thought of the desire and want. They wanted to trust, they wanted to explore what was before them, they wanted. Holly wanted to lean forward and kiss him, Ace was already leaning toward her in the same mind.

The moment broke when Holly winced, not from Ace’s weight, but from the locket at her neck searing into her skin causing her to flinch. Seeing it, Ace assumed it was because of his weight and hurried to climb into the window. He moved swiftly, and Holly didn’t have the time to back up; they ended up pressed right up against each other, almost chest to chest as Ace looked down and Holly up.

“We… we should go find them.” Holly managed to say as she backed off and turned around. Her hand automatically reached up, rubbing her chest to alleviate the burn as a pair of ghosts groaned in disappointment. “We need to find the basement, it has a dungeon where they should be. But I’m not sure which door leads down there. So-” she glanced back at Ace who was staring at her chest intensely, and she blushed rushing to turn around again. “So… err… er- let’s try um… every door we can… find, yeah.” She sped walked away.

Ace caught up quickly his eyes lingering on her neck where he could only just make out the chain of the locket he knew she wore under her clothes. The same Locket that continued to cut into her neck, the one that was causing her pain and yet she still wore the damned thing. Why? Why did she do it? What was it’s importance?

“So we open every door, and fuck up anyone who sees it.” Ace gave Holly a thumbs up as she opened the door of the office they ended up in to reveal a long hallway.

“Watch out for the paintings too, they can actually communicate with the Malfoy’s,” Holly added spotting one right off the bat, which was thankfully empty.

“Can do.”

Together they left the room heading to the right. Every door Ace and Holly passed, they opened, and peered inside. Quickly they grew annoyed by how large the building actually was. There were rooms upon rooms, dining rooms by the dozens, offices, bedrooms, two kitchens, entrance rooms, and beyond. But there was no way to the basement. And as they searched on, two figures floated behind them debating heavily on what to do.

_“We need her to duel the kid!”_

_“I know but think about who is around right now. If we do this wrong, our fawn will end up facing Voldemort instead and-”_

_“We have to take the chance, she needs that wand Prongs, without it she’s dead.”_

_“I… I know… I know. Fine, let's do it.”_

Ace and Holly had found another dining room when it happened. In the middle of the hallway lay an entire suit of armor, and as they passed it, the whole thing collapsed. They both froze in surprise, giving each other a look in blame for the incident even though Holly had been nowhere near it and Ace couldn’t have touched it without actively using haki.

“What did you do?” Holly gasped in alarm.

“I’m not using haki, it had to be your magic.”

“Magic doesn’t do that!” No, that was a lie, it did around her. But why would that strange magic want them discovered-

“Potter?” Holly and Ace spun on the spot. Behind them stood Draco Malfoy looking pale, haggard, and frankly more sickly than he had during their sixth year, and he wore an expression Holly couldn’t begin to read. Oddly enough, Holly’s first thought was to wonder why Draco was in the manor, he should have been in Hogwarts for his last year. It seemed she truly had lost track of time. “What are you doing _here_?” Draco didn’t act as though he was furious about her appearance, but rather… worried that she was there at all?

“Ah, good a guide, think he’ll show us to the dungeon? We are guests, after all.” Ace said causing Holly to snort quite randomly in Draco’s eyes.

“You idiot! You need to leave-”

A form grew from behind him, a mess of curls, haunted purple eyes and a crazed expression. Bellatrix Lestrange burst into delighted cackles as she screamed out a delighted: “Itty Bitty Potter!”

“Fu-” Holly caught herself using Ace’s swear as she turned on her heel, and bolted. There was little reason for it, Holly likely could have handled Bellatrix in a duel on top of Draco, especially with Ace assisting her. But something about the woman unsettled Holly’s instincts, just as being chased made her mind panic. A crash sounded as Bellatrix launched over the fallen suit of armor to give chase, and all control left her.

_“You idiot!”_

_“I didn’t know the bitch was that close!”_

“Holly!” Ace watched her flee, and the bitch give chase, he swore and went to follow her when the blond jerked. Ace gave the man a look as his eyes darted toward a nearby door, one they hadn’t yet checked. Draco reminded Ace that he and Holly still needed to find Ron and Hermione, and now that they had been discovered that would become more difficult. Especially if Voldemort was called.

He’d have to find them. But first, he could deal with the blond

Smirking to himself, Ace charged toward the man, he kicked the wall and threw all his weight into his fist to knock out the blond in one single strike- and something slammed into his solar plexus. Ace choked losing all the air in his lungs as he hit the ground hard. He knocked into the suit of armor and sent pieces in every direction in a cacophony of noise. Ace wheezed out of breath as he tried to regain his breathing from the sudden and violent strike, and wrenched open his watery eyes as he sought out the source of the blow.

Draco was gone, in his place was a shadowy figure hovering above Ace with lanky black hair and an apologetic smile. Ace sneered in its direction: “who the bloody-” it vanished like the wind before he finished his sentence leaving Ace alone in the hallway. “…what?” he pushed himself up and waved a hand where it had been, nothing was there, but the air was chilled, like- “ a ghost?” his eyes narrowed recalling Holly’s theory about why he was there, but if it was a ghost and was trying to help them why had it stopped him from knocking out the enemy?

What was happening to him?

Ace swore and ignored it as a distant crash, and a cackle sounded. He didn’t have the time for it, he didn’t have the time for anything really. Ace had to find the dungeon, get Holly’s friends out, then return to Holly’s side to deal with the insane woman. He strode away, this time, toward the door the blond had been eying before everything occurred.

At the same time, Holly was two rooms over as she fled into the kitchen as she threw spells behind her at a frantic rate. She dove through doorways, over couches, behind chairs, and passed the destroyed remains of furniture as Bellatrix missed her over again and again. Had she been calmer Holly might have noticed that Bellatrix hadn’t once managed to hit her, and her dodging had grown in leaps and bounds because of the training she was doing with Ace. But Holly was anything but calm.

Bellatrix dueled without a pattern, and that was precisely what made her so dangerous. She dueled with force, power, and madness. Throwing spells you’d never expect and others you’d have no idea how to defend against. Someone like McGonagall or Hermione who dueled with focused logic could never handle an opponent like Bellatrix. Only someone who fought with instinct, who could adapt in an instant could handle her. Holly was the sort of duelist who could handle it, her only weakness being her inability to dodge was already being fixed by Ace’s training. Unfortunately, while she was panicking as she was, Holly would have no chance.

Holly sprinted into a large music room with only one entrance and exit, she skidded to a stop throwing her weight to the side to avoid the sickly looking spell that weaved past her head. She stared at Bellatrix, who had stopped in the doorway and was laughing.

The wards shook around her, twisting around the house until the magic involved was physically visible in the air. Colors danced as the air grew heavy, and an almost smog-like effect started to twist into being. Magic so black it could be seen wrapped around her body and the locket on Holly’s neck burned as she gave a pained cry. Her free hand rushed upward and grabbed her scar as it burst open and she screamed-

“He’s come.” Bellatrix sang with glee.

Voldemort had arrived.

Ace froze on the steps toward the dungeon when power fell over the building. It was like conquerors haki drowning out everything and making a weaker individual freeze in terror. But it was not at the strength Ace was used to. He had felt Whitebeard’s haki on several occasions, casual use of which had knocked out many of their own number and every marine on an attacking ship. Few had kept their feet, let alone their consciousness. Only the commanders had remained up, and of those only Ace, Jozu, and Marco had been unruffled by it.

Voldemort’s magic was substantially similar to conquerors haki, but it was unpracticed, it was weak in comparison to Edward Newgate, and Ace sensing it for the first time was able to accurately sort Voldemort in a proper strength level. Voldemort, Ace decided, was akin to his own level of strength.

Paused on the stairs, Ace made a few realizations. One, Holly had the power to match Voldemort but lacked the experience. Ace knew from their training that Holly had the potential to handle weak opponents with a flick of her wrist, but not the finesse needed to fight someone of equal or greatest strength to herself. Holly was learning but wasn’t there yet, and that thought led him to his second realization. Holly was not yet a match for Voldemort in a one on one fight, just as she wasn’t a match to Ace either. Therefore, at three, Ace had to be the one to kill Voldemort, before Voldemort killed Holly.

It was no wonder she was avoiding the fight, she wouldn’t currently survive it.

Holly would die-

Ace was taking a step up the stairs, preparing to abandon her friends in an instant, was ready to rush to her side- when he heard a childish whimper from below followed by a comforting whisper. His teeth ground together as he hovered between paths, up or down, Holly or the prisoners. Ace swore and turned once more to head downward, he had to believe she could handle it, that she’d survived long enough for him to free her friends.

He hit the bottom step and strode toward the wooden door before him. Black raced up his arm as he swung his fist back, and in a single brutal move, Ace pulverized the door. Wood splitters went through him and bounced off the ground. And as the dust cleared Ace triple checked the people he needed to rescue were in the dungeon itself. In the large basement area were several people, an aged man with wispy hair, a girl with platinum blond hair and odd eyes that were locked right on his own, and the huddled forms of Ronald Weasley, and Hermione Granger.

The group was bruised, they were hagged, starved, and tortured. But they were alive.

The girl with the odd eyes smiled as Ace scanned them, and without reason, she suddenly said: “See Ron, I told you, the ‘D’ wouldn’t leave us down here. They’re kind people… or most of them are.” Ace recoiled slightly as she grinned his way with a smile that had a tooth missing, the last part of her sentence echoed unpleasantly in his ears and soured his mouth. He could hear it, a familiar laugh that curled his lip.

“You know,” The girl continued, “it’s not pyrite this place.”

“Luna what are you talking about-”

“Hermione, you need to stand, the door is opened I think-”

A pained scream cut them all off. It bounced along the walls and rattled against Ace's eardrums- he was out of the dungeon and flying up the stairs toward Holly before his mind had even realized his body had moved.

Ace passed through walls as if they were minor inconveniences, he slid through furniture without care and sprinted until he found himself in a large music room. A grand piano, a harp, and countless other instruments left for decor rather than use layered in the room in splintered heaps. Huge gaping holes were missing from the walls. And Holly, his Holly, was on her hands and knees in the middle of the room while Voldemort himself stood over her.

Holly spat out the iron taste in her mouth as she stared at the floor below her, the floor splattered with her blood and the wood chips from the wand she’d called her own. The wand made from her namesake and the creature that had saved her life had been shattered; destroyed like the hope Holly had of living another day. Her battle with Voldemort had happened too soon. Above her death loomed almost poetically, the Horcrux within her would be destroyed by Voldemort’s own hand. It was how Dumbledore had designed it, how he wanted it to happen, how it should have from the prophecies words.

Her time had come, the moment Voldemort arrived at Malfoy Manor she’d known. She’d hoped he wouldn’t come, hoped she could have put it off. Hoped that she could have kept the Malfoy’s and Bellatrix busy long enough to save Ron and Hermione and avoid Voldemort entirely. Holly was a fool. She knew what hope got her, nothing. It hadn’t freed her from her cupboard or her relatives, hadn’t saved Sirius, Cedric, Hedwig, or Moody. It hadn’t helped her escape her destiny at all.

She was a dead woman walking, living on borrowed time that had cost countless people their lives. If not for her existence Dumbledore would have already found the Horcruxes and ended the war and all the people now dead would be alive. Holly needed to die, she knew it, knew it, knew it-

And Holly couldn’t breathe from the fear of it. It burned like the locket searing a hole in her chest desperate to get back to its creator. It burned like the way her hands dug into the floor and shards of wood under her palms. The acceptance of her face was a bald-faced lie she told herself. The resolve to do what was needed, the determination to ensure the job was done, it was bullshit. Holly didn’t want to die.

It was why she’d worked so hard to repair the holes in her defense with Ace. Why she’d accepted his company so quickly. Why she worked every night to figure out that damned Horcrux and how she could live through its removal. She wasn’t ready- she wasn’t! But she had to, it was her destiny, her fate etched into being before she’d even taken her first breath. She had to die but-

_“You need to focus and shove that shit back!”_

He’d changed her mind without even doing anything, changed everything by showing her what? Nothing? He’d changed her entire life, and she couldn’t describe how.

She didn’t want to die and it was entirely Ace’s fault.

Ace froze, seeing Holly lift her head, as she lifted her eyes from the floor, froze as blood dripped from Holly’s mouth where her tooth had gone straight through her lip. Bruises were forming along her body, and her arms shook as though she’d been running a week-long marathon. As Ace arrived, the spell making her scream ended as the snake-faced beast laughed and laughed as she struggled to just lift herself off her knees.

Red.

Red as the fire he was made from, red as the vest Luffy wore, red like the anger dancing at the surface all through his childhood.

Fury burned through him-

“Now, you die.” Voldemort taunted, as the ice white wand he held lit up a sickly dangerous green- ' _watch out for the green one though, it’s a one-hit kill, and I have no idea if it will actually kill you or not. The words are-'_

“Avada-”

“NO!!”

_“HOLLY DODGE!”_

_“PUP-”_

“-Kedavra-”

A freckled, black coated form tackled Holly from the side sending them careening from the spot. Where she had just been laying, a green spell splashed as it missed her and her savior by a hair's breadth. Holly’s head cracked against the ground, as Ace rolled them until his back hit the wall where he landed on top of Holly, his arms wrapped protectively around her middle. Holly had her eyes pinned closed as she pressed her head to Ace’s chest, her body shook, and her hands grasped at his shoulders since he wore no shirt for her to clutch. Ace was the opposite, his eyes were wide as he stared at the dispelling green magic on the spot Holly had just been laying.

She’d been that close to death, that close to leaving him. If he had wasted a single second, if he’d hesitated a moment, then Holly would be dead, and he’d be alone trapped in the darkness again. His fingers flexed on her back as he exhaled a shaky breath while he cursed his slow realization. He actually cared, and yet he’d been telling himself again and again that he didn’t, that he could just leave her without looking back. Gods above, he was doomed.

Voldemort turned toward them both, seeing Holly alone and his wand lifted again, a sneer among his lipless mouth. Ace growled and quickly retook his feet, dragging Holly along with him.

“Holly, we’re not in the clear yet. Focus.” Ace demanded of her even as he shoved her protectively behind him. His free hand cracked as he wondered if he could handle Voldemort; ordinarily, it would be fine, but in this world, he didn’t have his fire. And while Ace couldn’t be seen, he was well aware Voldemort would be actively attacking Holly, making things complicated for him.

“My wand…” Holly was reeling. She had no idea what she was doing, no idea what she should do. Holly had to die, she knew that but- but she didn’t want to, she was scared, and she had unfinished business. She wasn’t ready-

“Please,” Ace scoffed at her just as he’d done countless times before while they dueled; it snapped her into that mindset, a familiar one that helped her to focus, “you don’t need that damned thing to fight,” there was an opportunity there Ace realized, if she focused on a secondary opponent- “but… if you insist. You could always steal one.” He wiggled his brows at Holly and shot a look toward a nervous Draco standing beside his parents at the side of the room. “I’ll get the big guy.” He’d have to, there was no other option, Holly was not in the right mindset for this.

Holly followed his gaze to Draco, heard Voldemort distantly taunting her. But it no longer held the same effect, this too she blamed on Ace… or thanked him she reasoned. “Okay.”

They stepped forward together, charged together. Holly with full intentions of diving past Voldemort toward Draco, while Ace on covering her and snatching hold of that nasty little stick between Voldemort’s fingers. In a moment, Ace had his hand up as he placed himself between Holly and Voldemort, as he deflected a sickly looking spell with haki that Voldemort directed toward his girl. Ace saw the shock appear on Voldemort’s face and cackled while Holly rocketed past. She wrenched Draco’s wand brutally from his fingers and used it to attack him and his parents before they reacted or tried to attack her. At the same time, Ace deflected three more spells and wished deeply he could have taunted the snake-faced freak of a man.

Ace couldn’t charge Voldemort and snap his neck like he wanted to. The man cast too quickly for Ace to act, and while Holly’s back was turned, he dared not allow a single spell past him. Forward motion was awkward, he’d need Holly to defend herself if he was to do anything- a spell in bright red clipped his fingers and Ace gasped. Pain rushed through him, stronger than anything he’d felt before. It was like every nerve in his body was being electrified- it was the same feeling he’d felt as Teach bared down on him and darkness licked at his body-

“Ace!”

Holly stood beside him, facing Voldemort, and he hissed a breath through his teeth. He’d fallen at one point, to a knee. Enraged at being taken down that far Ace rose up once again snapping out: “I’m fine.”

Behind them, Draco was unconscious after Holly cracked her foot into his temple. Likewise, Lucius was down, while Narcissa bodily covered her son from further harm. Bellatrix alone was standing with the Dark Lord, but she dared not attack, Bellatrix was well aware Holly Potter was Voldemort’s to kill.

As if to emphasis it Voldemort suddenly hissed: “Do not touch Bellatrix, the girl is mine,” A viewpoint Holly did not share, he was more than willing to allow Ace to take Voldemort once the Horcruxes were destroyed; he’d already proven he was fast enough to catch Voldemort unaware. But until they were annihilated, Holly was fine being a distraction. She almost snorted, she was a distraction, that hadn’t happened before.

Side by side with Ace staring Voldemort and Bellatrix down, Holly realized that she was going to have to let Ace into a few truths by the end of that day. “Ace, do you trust me?” Holly asked under her breath.

“Loaded question, let's go with yes.” He said back; because the truth was, a part of him did, and that was an island shaking realization.

Holly exhaled in relief, this would go much better if he trusted her word and she didn’t have to explain. “Okay, we can’t kill Voldemort yet. There’s something I have to do before he dies and that something requires information Bellatrix has.”

Ace flicked his eyes to her, then to Bellatrix. He’d been right, Holly had been hiding something, and it involved Voldemort, and now it seemed she was finally ready to speak to him about it. He wished she had done so beforehand though, leaving Voldemort behind now was going to be annoying and meant they would have to find the snake once more at a later date, a later date that Ace might not even have.

Regardless Ace did tell Holly he trusted her, so for the moment, he kept his mouth shut. “Give me five seconds.” He’d grab the bitch, and they’d leave, everything else they’d deal with after.

Still, Holly hesitated, she had one final thing tying her there: “Ace… Hermione and Ron?”

“They’re fine.” He assured her as they faced their respective opponents.

“Thank you.” And together they rushed forward, Ace flying past Voldemort toward the crazed woman, and Holly spinning into a furious casting speed as she dodged. Holly took large steps actively moving as Ace had taught her to for the first time that day. Her hair swung as spells brushed passed her harmlessly. Her dueling wasn’t perfect, she had a long way to go, but she was better, and that counted to Voldemort who had never seen her do anything but spam cast the expelling curse.

Lights and energy flashed between them, as Holly advanced, as she actually tried to win. As she fought far harder than she had that entire day, as she resisted the end and the fate that doomed her.

Nearby Ace threw wide an arm and braced his hand against Bellatrix’s arm near her elbow. Then, in a painfully loud and brutal move, Ace grabbed the woman’s dominate arm close to the wrist. With a sharp move that was all power and little finesse, he snapped the bone. Bellatrix screamed in sudden agony, she had no idea what had happened or why and Ace didn’t let her figure it out either. He twisted the arm around dislocating the shoulder before he stole the wand right out of her limp fingers. Shifting his weight low Ace snatched the woman by the middle and tossed her bodily over his shoulder before he turned toward Holly standing face to face with Voldemort in the middle of the room.

Holly stood closer to Ace than Voldemort, giving her a perfect view of the single entrance to the room. Standing there were her best friends in the world; neither looked well, but in war, no one would. Hermione was shaking in a way that screamed cruciatus damage, while her eyes were amazingly clear, promising sanity considering who had done the torturing. There was a mark running up her arm, letters laying on the skin that infuriated Holly. On top of that, Hermione was leaning heavily on Ron, as if she could only just keep her feet. Holding her up was Ron with painful-looking bruises across his face, there were markings wrapped around his neck that screamed strangulation. While any other damage was hidden under his clothing.

They both stared at her in pure shock; at the ferocity she’d fought with, at the style they’d never seen Holly use before, at the man they’d glimpsed only for a second before he’d vanished before their eyes. Hermione and Ron looked at their friend, the one trained to end her own life, the girl they’d been so terrified for and saw the sheer amount of changes in her, enough that it made them breathless with hope.

It had been all of a few days, but as Lily had believed, the right person could change everything.

Then the moment broke as Voldemort returned to the fight, as Holly stepped back not giving him the satisfaction of it and apparated on the spot. Holly was well aware Voldemort would be too furious by her disappearance to notice Ron and Hermione also leaving in the same moment. While Ace, still gripping Bellatrix, vanished right along with her.

Together, Ace and Holly landed in the very same clearing they’d met, and together burst into a run for the forest edge. Holly’s magic could be tracked, so they had quite the goose-chase to drag Voldemort and his people on. That, however, mattered less to Holly as she opened her mouth and laughed in pure joy.

Today she lived, Holly had one more day to find a way to escape her fate. She had another day to save Ace. To figure out the Horcrux in her head, to worry about the first degree burns the locket had put in her neck to get to Voldemort. She could worry about what she’d tell Ace about the truth and how. She could fight with him again, train with him again. She had the chance to see her friends and family, the ocean, or forests. She could have one more meal and-

And she was alive.

And Holly could enjoy that for a moment.


	7. Chapter 7

“You filthy Mudblood! The Dark Lord will have your heads for this! You will scream and beg for your pathetic existences, you’ll- Grk-”

Striding into a clearing Ace tossed his shoulder upward and bounced the banshee on his shoulder, slamming her stomach into his shoulder. Bellatrix’s lungs protested as she hacked and coughed trying to regain her breath for the umpteenth time that day. As she did Ace smirked pleased to have temporarily silenced her vitriol even if it was only a temporary reprieve. No matter the length, it was a blessing to have a few minutes of silence. Bellatrix had been screeching endlessly since she realized she’d been kidnapped effectively, by an invisible muggle. A fact Holly had the great pleasure of revealing; even if it cost Ace his hearing for the next hour of travel.

This was not the first clearing Ace, and Holly had passed through, but like every one before it Ace shot a considering glace at the area. It was a habit he had possessed since he’d been a child wandering the forest with Sabo and later Luffy. Venturing out into the vast expanses of Dawn island and selecting camp sites with great care lest they be attacked by something Ace couldn’t handle. After turning seventeen and setting sail, Ace found less reason to be out far enough into forests to need to actually camp, until he'd run into Holly. Habit had Ace scenting the air for a sign of nearby water - even though Holly could conjure water out of thin air and was carrying a house. He checked the forest for visibility, outside and in, to see threats from a distance, but also allow the tent to be hidden while they slept. Ace also took into account the animal tracks as they’d been walking for hunting and not for threat considering the size and breed of the tracks Ace had spotted. All in all, it was a good spot, and he turned to Holly automatically to tell her exactly that, and found her staring up at him.

Holly’s hair was a tangled mess, sticks and drying blood clung to it. Her lip was split, and her eye was blackening from being stuck at one point during the fight. The damage at Holly's head was the only sign of the battle as her dueling robes ran all the way up to her chin, and seemed to protect the rest of her body. Quite unlike Ace who showed absolutely no sign of anything he’d done that day and instead carried the noticeable bruising from his real body still trapped in Impel Down.

Ace couldn’t speak as he realized Holly had been waiting for him. She had purposely stopped, purposely paused all so he could check the area. Holly trusted him to select their campsite, and it did funny things to his stomach. He was probably hungry he told himself and forcefully looked away before he did something like blush. “This spot is good.” He said watching from the corner of his eye as her lips quirked subtly and she pulled her bag off her shoulder.

“Brilliant, I’m beat.” Something was off in her voice, perhaps it was because of what they soon had to speak about. Ace didn’t question it then as Holly dumped her bag on her floor and flicked her wand summoning the tent from within and directing it toward the middle of the area. With another flick, the rocks and sticks surged off the ground and careened into the forest a split second before the tent hit the dirt and exploded outward as it assembled itself with a brush of her magic.

Ace tilted his head more and more as she worked watching her hands twist, and her wand rose and fell in elegant patterns. Holly gave no sign to the amount of running they’d been doing across the countryside, nor did she- he caught the eyes of Bellatrix Lestrange sneering at Holly. His mood sobered instantly as he caught the plotting expression, and he purposely bounced the banshee in punishment. Bellatrix choked and swore furiously with a purple glow in her eyes that screamed madness and power.

“I’ll kill you! You’ll go mad like the Longbottom’s-” Holly beside him flinched, her whole body jerking as her eyes flew wide, “you can join them in the hospital named mad potty-”

_“Silencio!”_

Bellatrix’s mouth worked, but no sound escaped it, Ace’s brows hit his hairline as she struggled in his grip soundlessly for the first time that entire afternoon. Bellatrix was muted, the banshee was silenced. Irritation sparked, and he shot Holly a mock glare: “You couldn’t have done that earlier?” he rubbed his eye with his free hand, “my ears are still ringing thanks to all her screaming.”

Holly reached up in an automatic move of embarrassment, and she rubbed the back of her neck, the moment her hand made contact her breath hitched oddly, hurriedly she dropped her arm and said: “Would you believe I forgot I could?”

“Right.” Ace rolled his eyes in tease as her cheeks tinted. He made a mental note to ask next time if she could do something like say, mute the endlessly screaming banshee hanging off his shoulder. Holly’s blush raced up to her ears as she dutifully avoided eye-contact and Ace made a derisive noise with his nose before changing the topic. Mostly, because if he was admitting it to himself if that blush moved any further, he was going to give her a better reason for it. “Got a room for her?” he bounced Bellatrix who soundlessly swore up a storm.

Holly physically shook her head as if to shake away whatever thought had been plaguing her, then she nodded, and oh how he wondered what had been going through her head at that moment. “Err, yeah, yes! Past the bathroom we have a room we aren’t currently using, so that should work.”

Ace gave Holly a thumbs up before turning toward the tent which popped as it fully assembled. He left her to the wards while he secured their prisoner with his methods. The banshee was a witch and from what he understood was clueless about ‘Muggle’ methods. Which meant she’d be helpless to the ways he knew to keep her still. Pending he removed all the magical items from her first.  
  
Inside Ace passed the bathroom as Bellatrix truly started to struggle, apparently she’d both gotten her energy back and had forgotten he was vastly stronger than her. It was in fact with practically no effort that Ace had been able to cart Bellatrix all over the countryside. The only mild concern he had was her claws which could potentially be used to attack his face; however, that threat had been removed when Holly bound Bellatrix with magically conjured rope. Now all the woman could do was wiggle and scream, or just wiggle now. Passed the bathroom was a single unoccupied room, Hermione’s former room he assumed since Ace was currently using Ron’s.

Ace opened the door and gave the room a quick glance and got a decent judge of Hermione’s character with a glimpse. The bookworm was clear from a split-second glance, as however, was the people who had touched Hermione’s life. Pictures lay all around the walls of people he’d never seen and probably wouldn’t ever meet, yet still had meaning to the girl who had once slept there. Unwilling to give Bellatrix any sort of edge, he swiftly struck the back of her head and knocked the woman unconscious before she could get a look at any of the images. Ace was practical enough to be aware she could escape, and he didn’t want these people to be put in danger as a result. Tossing Bellatrix’s bound body carelessly to the bed, Ace gathered the pictures, books, and anything else with sentimental value. Then he picked up anything that could be used as a weapon or a method of escape, anything. Finally, after he’d finished that he stripped Bellatrix of any items which could have magical power, which to Ace meant just about everything. Holly had told him of an old boot which dragged her across the country, and he was not allowing such a thing to steal away their prisoner. This left Bellatrix in a room stripped bare while tied to the bed. Which… didn’t admittedly look great, he could just imagine what his brothers would say about it. But it wasn’t like they had a jail!

Locking the door behind him, Ace headed back to the main rooms and came to a stop. After all the time he had taken, he expected Holly to be already waiting for him. Ace knew very well exactly how long it took to put up the wards after seeing Holly do it so many times. Ace had been securing Bellatrix for longer than that, which meant she had to be finished but was still outside. Instinctively he knew why. The conversation looming over their heads, the secrets ready to be told, Ace understood how that felt. He knew what it was like to be preparing mentally to say something so huge that it froze you down to the core in hesitation. He’d done it with his father and the truth about his blood.

He knew Holly was avoiding it, avoiding him. It was why they’d spent the entire afternoon running about after a battle which had injured and drained Holly. Ace knew how to hide his tracks, Holly knew he knew how to do that. Just as Ace knew Holly had actively been covering her magical signature as they ran all over the place to ‘lose Voldemort’s trail.’ Yet they’d traveled far farther than the needed to, far longer than was required, all because Holly was avoiding speaking to him.

A part of Ace wanted to force the issue, to get the answer he deserved. To demand she tell him what she was hiding so that he could fix it, so they could come up with a plan. But the larger part of his mind thought of Marco. Thought of his eldest brother who had sat patiently at Ace’s side until he calmed down enough to tell them the truth. Who had told Ace that he didn’t have to do it, that they trusted him regardless of his history. Marco had given him the space needed to allow Ace to gather himself, and now Ace could do the same for Holly.

So instead of heading outside, Ace strode toward the kitchen.

They still had stag leftover from the previous time he’d hunted, and Ace pulled it out admiring the fridge once more. He was truly beginning to appreciate magic, and all it could do. The refrigerator alone was a godsend, it allowed food to be eternally preserved, frozen in time. Thatch would have probably murdered someone for a fridge like that, just as he could see Marco bodily tackling Holly for some of the potions he’d seen in the bathroom. Blood replenisher, the sheer idea of it, Ace didn’t have words.

Humming idly to himself Ace started to cook inspecting the food of Holly’s world with a critical eye. He was used to trying strange things considering he was a pirate, but Holly’s world did have some truly odd things. The candy had to be the best though, it was incredibly unique, and Ace honestly wished he could give some of it to Luffy for his birthday. In another universe that might have even been possible.

Feeling his mood sour Ace wrenched his mind to a different topic as he absently tasted some of the exotic spices Holly had claimed to be from across her planets oceans, evidentially easier to access than the islands of his. He put a bit of it in his mouth and shrugged, Thatch might have been horrified at him, but it tasted decent, so he tossed it on and hoped for the best. Which did make him wonder, how was Ace able to eat? If he was in an astral body, and his real one was still trapped in Impel Down, then how could his spirit consume food? It shouldn’t be possible.

“How is that?” he asked himself.

“How is what?” Came Holly’s voice causing him to start. He’d been so relaxed that he’d stopped keeping his observation haki active. The shock had that had him momentarily forget she’d asked a question because Ace could remember the exact moment he’d stopped using haki around the Whitebeard pirates. The very day he’d decided to trust them not to hurt him while he slept even if he hadn’t joined the crew for several weeks afterward. It was the day Marco had answered his question about why they called their father what they did.

Ace stared as his entire world rocked. He trusted Holly. How had that happened?

“Ace? How is what?” Holly repeated her question as she closed the tent flap behind her and waved a hand at the fireplace. A fire started up on the spot warming the entire tent and dispersing the constant chill to his skin. His shoulders relaxed as he turned to answer her as he caught her walk right passed the coat-hanger where she always hung her robes, except for then. And as she headed straight for the bathroom leaving the door open a crack so she could hear him.

“How… I can eat.” He stared at the coat hanger, his brow pinching together at the sudden change in habit. Why would she do that? A memory flashed in his head, of Holly splayed across the ground attempting to stand covered in blood. “Is this is an astral body, I shouldn’t be able to eat, right? Yet I do.”

In the bathroom, Holly heard his response and forced a noise in her throat to tell him she’d heard him and was thinking about it, and she was, but Holly could admit she was distracted. With her palms pressed on the bathroom sink, she grit her teeth as her neck twinged painfully. Hissing a breath through her teeth, Holly reached up and undid the first button of her dueling robes and nearly groaned in pain as the fabric caught on her wounds. Ace thought her clothing had protected her from the attacks Voldemort and Bellatrix had wrought on her, and he was half correct. The fabric protected her from cutting spells and some darker magic which was hard to shield against. But they did not protect him something like the cruciatus, or the blunt force trauma of being hurled into a spelled oak table. Nor did it protect from the item wrapped around her vulnerable neck.

While her torso was covered in bruises, her lip was split, her ankle sprained, and she was certain she’d at least bruised a rib on the table, the worst damage was on Holly’s neck. Wearing it had been a necessity, wearing it around Voldemort was a mistake. The Horcrux had fought to get back to its owner, and Holly’s neck had been the only thing stopping the soul fragment from returning to its main soul. The entire battle it had been wrenching brutally on her neck to return, and as a result, Holly’s neck looked like someone had attempted to strangle her, and had nearly succeeded.

Her throat was a mess of bruises and deep open wounds. Tender slices raced across her throat, and what was the beginnings of a crushed larynx made every sound she made excruciating. That which wasn’t bleeding had already turned a painful black from the bruising. Holly winced at it wary of pulling the rest of her robes off because the fabric had dried against her open injuries. Still, she knew to fix it she’d have to have access to it, so Holly began the process of pulling her clothes off.

As she worked her spell activated, the same one she’d cast the moment she realized had bad it was. She’d learned it back in her fifth year after her uncle took retribution on her for the twins' actions against Dudley. When she’d been picked up by the Order Holly had hidden her neck and had avoided speaking at all, so no one discovered the damage. Holly had played it off as anger toward the silence they’d given her for the summer, that as a return she wouldn’t speak to them either. Holly had done so until she’d discovered the Grimmauld Place's wards covered underage magic and allowed her to use magic even if she’d only been fifteen. The spell she’d learned right after that moment allowed her to disguise her voice, in that case, with her own healthy voice, so no one found out anything was different.

The spell worked perfectly as she spoke through the pain: “It’s likely because of energy. The energy used to power the spell comes from somewhere. It’s possible the food your taking in is like your haki, it’s helping power the spell and taking some of the cost off whoever is actually casting it.” It couldn’t be an easy thing to do, to send an astral body across worlds.

As she explained, Holly pulled the rest of the fabric away and ignored the prickling tears of pain forming as they ran across her cheeks in thick trails. She was no stranger to pain, so she didn’t cry out. Casually Holly tossed the robes toward the corner of the room into the laundry basket then moved to grab the hem of her shirt to pull it up and over to get her first look at her torso. Standing in a sports bra that she did not want to bother pulling over her head, Holly debated just cutting the bloody thing off and getting a new one. It might be possible to get away with leaving it on because Holly had no open wounds on her chest, but then… she really didn’t want to keep wearing it either.

Hissing Holly felt the locket give a brutal tug on her neck in punishment for her escape. It was coupled with a burning sensation in her scar, a constant since she’d fled from Voldemort earlier that day. Grinding her teeth to stop herself from crying out, Holly wrenched the thing off her neck and tossed it into the sink. It clattered, and blood splattered as it hit coating the porcelain, but she didn’t care.

For now, Holly leaned up and opened the mirror, revealing her extra potions. The shelf had once been heavily stocked. Holly had spent the summer spam owl ordering potions in preparation for the hunt. As her supply waned, fear had overtaken her, a doubt that she wouldn’t be able to replace what she used since she could not access Diagon Alley anymore. But that fear evaporated after Ace had appeared, after he showed her exactly how she could still get more.

Smiling slightly, Holly reached up and selected a larger vial and pulled it down- and a hand touched her neck.

Holly screeched hands flailing as her accidental magic surged. A red arc raced through Ace’s body and splashed against the hallway wall cracking the wood and shattering a painting that had been placed that. Ace gave no mind to the attack, as he leaned forward casually and caught the vial she’d all but tossed in his direction in her surprise. Holding it in a loose grip, his eyes roamed her body, but there was no heat in his gaze.

“Ace!” Holly felt her ears burn at her undressed state, even as she pressed her hand to her chest to still her frantic heart. “Don’t do that!”

Ace’s brown eyes darted from bruise to bruise before they finally landed on her neck and his lips pressed together firmly. Something flashed in his eyes then, something Holly had seen before but still didn’t recognize that anyone would look like that for her. It was something protective, something concerned and yet furious in defense. And for that moment Ace looked like he was about to storm from the room and rip apart Voldemort with his bare hands for daring- but he couldn’t possibly be thinking that; Holly didn’t deserve that from him. Not when she was lying to his face about her fate, not when she intended to keep him utterly clueless to how this war would end.

“Snake-face do this?” he reached up, and Holly watched in fascination as black slipped up his hands a split second before the tips of his fingers brushed against her chin. He didn’t touch her neck out of wariness he'd hurt her, but the need to feel was still present, so he settled.

Holly’s eyes were wide as she stuttered something, probably a confirmation, but her mind was too fogged to recall precisely what she said. Then Ace lifted his eyes, ‘wow Ace was close, when did he get so close’ she thought before blurting: “Yes! Yes, that was Vold-” his fingers tapped her lips and her brain short-circuited. Bloody hell she really was gone for him.

“Let’s not summon the small fry, I just finished cooking.” He commented before pulling his hands back, reminding her of the taboo and how awful she was about not saying Voldemort’s name. Honestly, she’d wished Dumbledore never taught her to say his name, it was a habit now, and it was putting her life at risk.

Ace lifted the vial in his fingers and checked the label then waggled it in front of her nose. “’Bruise paste.’ Just rub it in?”

“I can do it myself,” Holly argued automatically. She could handle her own wounds, Holly always did if she could get away with it, she didn’t need his help-

“Easier for me.” He retorted quickly and thumbed off the lid with one hand, while the other nudged her until she was facing the mirror with her back to him. Holly scowled even as she let him do it, even as she reached up and snatched another vial that was needed to heal the open wounds, one which she had to drink. Holly downed it quickly as Ace’s hand sank into her hair, causing her to stare at his face through the mirror. Holly watched mesmerized as he twisted her hair and tied it up without a hair-band or tie, she hadn’t even known that was possible, and she was the one with the long hair.

“How’d you do that?” Holly couldn’t help but ask as Ace tipped the bruise paste onto his fingers while the wounds at her neck slowly healed from the potion. Holly twitched violently as his fingers finally made contact with her tender neck and he began to rub the paste in.

“Didn’t always have time for a hair-cut when I was a kid.” Ace told her, giving in to his instincts and allowing himself to pass on a small piece of his personal history. “I taught myself to do it at first, my guardian’s wouldn’t so-” he shrugged idly and rubbed upwards into her hairline which caused her knees to go a bit weak. He was basically massaging her, and the longer he did it, the better it felt as her wounds were quickly healing. He rubbed firmly, and Holly gasped and leaned forward torn between a small amount of pain and leaning into his hands, his touch… she wanted all of that- oh Merlin-

“My bad, that hurt?” he reduced the pressure, and Holly’s cheeks flamed. She thanked Circe that Ace thought it had been pain that caused the noise and not the truth.

“Nope, it’s fine, keep going!” did that sound desperate? She was pretty sure she sounded a bit airy at the least.

Ace hummed unconvinced but kept going: “Anyway, I used to use sticks or vine because I couldn’t afford the fancy shit. That was until I met…” he hesitated, and Holly’s eyes slid open unaware of when she’d actually closed them. She watched his expression as he internally debated his next step before settling; “This lady who would come down to visit me, she taught me to cut my own hair. Sometimes I’m still too lazy to do it though.” He shrugged gesturing to his hair which was beginning to brush against his shoulders at certain angles. “Probably need a cut soon.” He added as an afterthought before mentally adding, ‘if I live.’

Moving away from the morbid thought Ace took a careful look at Holly’s neck as the bloodied wounds knit together and gave it a critical eye. He wasn’t Marco, but he could still tell the difference between the bruising from hands, and from chains, and the injuries Holly had was from the latter. Ace shot a look at the blood coated locket in the sink and scowled, it was likely Voldemort had attempted to summon it, and it had gotten caught on her neck. He’d have to make sure she didn’t wear it the next time they fought the man.

He leaned back, pulling his hands fuly from her neck. “Do you have bandages?”

Holly jerked her head in a quick nod and nearly tripped over herself to summon them to her hand. Holly all but shoved them into Ace’s chest, face to face she watched as he wrapped her neck. His hands were butterfly soft as he took the utmost care not to hurt her further. Finally, he leaned back and shot her bruised chest a look. Seeing it, Holly’s face flamed once more realizing the specific locations where she'd been hurt. As much as one part of her wanted, the more significant part realized it would be a terrible idea for Ace to be rubbing those spots.

“I… can do the rest myself.”

“I figured.” He handed her the vial with a smirk that screamed flirt.

Holly swatted his shoulder, aware that he’d allowed it since she couldn’t touch him otherwise. “Shoo.” She said, pointing firmly at the door. He gave a laugh and raised his hands innocently ready to back off, ready to leave, when he remembered the locket in the sink.

“Oh.” He reached for it, “here, don’t forget this.”

Holly had felt it before. That ground shaking horrible moment when the whole world seems to slow, and yet speed up all at once. It was as if everything was happening at once, but she alone was frozen. Stuck there and forced to watch as her world shattered. It had happened the day Sirius fell into the veil, as his body took forever to vanish and yet she’d been unable to do a thing. And it happened again then.

Every instinct Holly possessed screamed at the same moment. It was with perfect understanding that she knew Ace, as a muggle, should absolutely under no circumstances touch a Horcrux when it power wasn’t being blocked by her magic. The piece of Voldemort’s soul which had plagued Ron’s mind until he’d become violent even with his own magic as protection. Holly couldn’t imagine what it would do to Ace, Ace who was in an astral body, a literal spirit without any protection at all.

But even as she understood this, even as her mind raged against it. Her mouth refused to work, her body was too sluggish to stop it.

_“Shit- Ace!”_

_“Stop him, Holly-”_

“Don’t-”

And Ace’s fingers slid around the locket, and the world exploded in a cacophony of noise.

Holly was sent hurtling backward as pure black magic surged out of the locket as it cracked open without command. Darkness encircled Ace in seconds and took physical form shoving Holly backward. Her knees struck the back of the tub as she staggered and she tripped tangling in the curtain. Holly’s head cracked against the tiles as smog entangled her further. Holly’s magic leapt to her command, there was no spell on her lips as her personal energy batted at the darkness, attempting to push it away from her. Green crackled against black, but despite everything leading her to believe she ought to be stronger than the Horcrux, she was losing.

Standing right where he’d been the moment his hand touched the locket Ace did not have Occlumency or magic to defend him. Instinct told him to drop the jewelry in his hands, but when he tried the chain gained a life of its own. It circled around his wrists like sea-stone snakes and stopping his haki had no effect as the chains dragged him down as it were the ocean itself and with force far stronger than Ace had felt from even Voldemort himself. He crashed to his knees breathless as his arms were yanked to the sides and out; he was trapped in the exact position he was in Impel Down, and he fought it.

The smog wrapped around his neck, squeezing. His body rebelled gasping despite that, and he inhaled pure magic, causing him to choke. The whispers began drowning out a high pitched scream of pain.

“Portgas D. Ace… or should I say Gol D. Ace.” He snapped his head up as the smoke twisted a person appeared within it. Thatch, more bloodied than in Ace’s memories glared down at him with a fierceness Thatch hadn’t ever shown in life. Ace remembered the moment Thatch had died, he’d bled out in Ace’s arms because Ace had been the one to find him. Ace remembered screaming Marco’s name, remembered putting pressure on the wound and feeling Thatch get colder and colder. As Thatch gave his dying wish that Ace did not go after Teach alone, a wish Ace had blatantly ignored-

“Cursed blood.” Thatch spat at him, “demon child… I should have known that blood of yours would doom me, doom us all! This is what I get for trusting a stain like you.” Ace flinched as if he’d been physically slapped, and a slap would have been better.

Holly watched in horror as Ace’s head dropped and his eyes went utterly dead to the strangers' words. Fury exploded in her heart, as the man she’d come to know as endlessly powerful, wickedly smart, and beyond kind crumpled before her very eyes over a few choice words. And then Ace, staring at the floor, did something she hadn’t expected.

“I didn’t mean for- Thatch I’m sorry! I tried to- I didn’t know Teach would-” he stuttered helplessly, his eyes pleading for forgiveness at whatever crime the shade was accusing him of.

“Don’t give me your excuses you demon. You think you deserve it?” ‘Thatch’ sneered, “you don’t! The only thing something like you deserves is death. How someone didn’t stamp you out long before this will forever shock me.” Holly watched as ‘Thatch’ looked away from Ace and locked eyes with her, his eyes flashed blood red, and an unnatural smirk crossed his face. It was the same smile Tom Riddle had given her as he bragged about what he’d done to Ginny. The same one Voldemort allowed to slip onto his lipless mouth after he’d been revived with her blood in his veins.

Holly renewed her struggle screaming Ace’s name, but it was drowned out as more people formed in the smoke, as the power of the locket grew while it devoured the energy Ace possessed.

Ace found himself staring at Izo crumpled on the floor holding a blood-stained shirt. His eyes lifted, bright red and blotched with his anguished tears: “It’s your fault he died, your fault I’m alone now.”

“If only you’d realized, Teach was in your division.” Marco looked at him passively, almost indifferent except for the wicked red in his normally blue eyes that screamed fury.

“And now the entire family will die.” Edward Newgate cast out a hand as a field of bodies piled up around him, all his siblings with great bloody chunks ripped out of them, “all because you selfishly ran off thinking you could fix it. One would have thought you’d know better… you can’t fix anything.”

“Ace!” Holly’s magic surged. The shades Voldemort had summoned weren’t even staring at Ace any longer, he watched her with red taunting eyes and looked at her as if to scream, ‘see how helpless you are.’ Gritting her teeth, Holly snapped her hand out shredding the curtain holding her still; she shoved away from the tub valiantly struggling against the smog choking Ace. Holly’s magic pressed against Voldemort’s but it was like fighting a wall. She could not move toward Ace, and her spell did nothing against Voldemort’s power.

Why was it so strong? She should have been stronger? She should be able to defend him- to protect him but- “Ace!!” she tried again desperately.

“Ace.” A voice, young and achingly familiar whispered behind him, and a boy, no older than ten stepped up at his side. Sabo.

Ace flinched away from his brother who's very skin seemed to be melting away. His face seemed to be begging for help, but Ace even struggling against the chains, could do no more as an adult than he had as a child. Sabo reached forward, small hands that would never grow, and took Ace’s chin in hand and wrenched his head up brutally. It was the final blow, Ace knew he wouldn’t survive this, Voldemort knew it was finished, Holly knew she had to do something before it happened. But they were helpless, forced to listen as Sabo spoke: “Everything you touch dies. Like Sabo died, like your mother died, like Thatch.” Voldemort savored the moment as the light in Ace died, “It’ll be all your fault when Holly meets her brutal end, like that brother of yours… what was it… Luffy-”

Glass shattered. Metal shards struck the ground with soft clinks, and the black magic in the room heaved. Like a gasping breath, the smoke expanded, then all at once surged right toward Ace. The shades screamed as they were whisked into the wave before they vanished with a crash. The room was left empty for all but Holly pressed to the floor, and Ace with a bloodied hand sitting with his head bowed.

Pressing her hand to the floor, Holly stood in confusion. The shades were gone, Voldemort’s magic was gone… but what happened? He had won, so why?

Holly stepped toward Ace, trainers crunching the metal and glass on the floor, but her mind didn’t connect why that was happening yet. She was more focused on the fact that Ace didn’t even seem to be breathing. Holly slid to her knees in front of him, uncertain if he’d accept any comfort from her, if he even could… what if he was possessed, what if she’d lost him?

“Ace?” she reached forward and watched her hand slip right through his shoulder, in theory, it should be a good sign? Shouldn’t it? “Are you… Ace?” he couldn’t be alright, not after that.

Holly twisted slightly trying to see through the curtain of his hair, trying to see if his eyes were still brown. “Ace?” she called once more, and his shoulders jerked. Wary, she leaned back slightly as his head lifted, and she exhaled when his hair parted revealing brown eyes.

A sheepish smile crossed Ace’s face: “Sorry Holly.”

Relief lit up her heart as she sagged. It was a bad sign how fast he’d adjusted to what happened. That was something she’d do, brushing off such harsh words because she believed them. Holly hated the idea that Ace would agree with any of what the shades said, and yet still didn’t question it when she did the same thing. “Why are you sorry? I’m just relieved you’re alright… Vold- Snake-face… that was his locket, a piece of his soul was in it. An item just like it possessed Ron’s sister when I was twelve, I was worried it would…”

“Possess me?” Ace suggested, “You don’t have to worry about that, I can handle snake-face just fine.” He didn’t want to admit he nearly had lost himself, if Sabo hadn’t mentioned Luffy at the last second. Which- “Now I’m wondering why you were wearing Snake-face’s locket… which, sorry about this, but I think I broke it.” He lifted his hand and wiggled his bloodied fingers in front of Holly’s face. And he watched her expression shift from concerned worrying, to stumped disbelief.

“YOU WHAT?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Been looking forward to three points in this story the whole time I've been writing it, and this is one of them. But you guys would not believe the grief I went through with chapter. I had all of four thousand words in this chapter finished last week, with the 'talk' to also be added in this chapter. But then my laptop shut down and when I turned it back on my computer had deleted the whole chapter, and that let me tell you is a serious motivation killer. Now, this week, I am sick but determined! So you get most of the chapter rewritten, and the talk pushed back to the next chapter. I hope you guys like it! And hopefully, my foggy brain didn't miss too many typo's.
> 
> Question of the day: What do you guys think is the next part I'm looking forward too? And what do you guys hope will happen?


	8. Chapter 8

Ace wanted to go home.

Holly knelt in the bathroom with the shattered remains of her locket in her hands, giggling uncontrollably like a madwoman. Giggling like something had snapped inside her. An ear to ear smile had split across her face. She was acting like a weight had been finally pulled off her shoulders and was basking in the sheer joy of it being gone. While Ace… he just wanted to go home.

Ace wanted to see his father again, to see his brothers again, and for the first time in his life, allow them to comfort him. He wanted to… he wanted Marco to tell him it wasn’t his fault that he’d missed Teach’s intentions; he wanted his pops to make everything okay again, to actually hug him and be the first one to do so since Luffy. Ace felt like a child craving familiar affection, affection that he’d never sought out before in his life. Ace wanted to roll up in his bed with his piles of paperwork nearby, which he was behind on. He wanted Luffy’s wanted poster hanging on the wall nearby and to hear the distant sound of drunken laughter echoing in his ears. He wanted the comfortable lull of the ocean waves under him rocking him to sleep. Ace was tired of being cold, tired of the axe hanging over his head, and being uncertain about Holly. He was so tired.

Ace grit his teeth grinding them together. He had to get it together, he actually wanted a hug; that was ridiculous, he’d never wanted something like that in years. Not since he’d been a child and Sabo had died- his hands shook, still picturing the melting face of his brother with those red eyes and speaking those harsh words. It was a terrible thing, but Ace no longer remembered Sabo’s real voice, nor did he remember the way he held himself. He didn’t remember the exact shade of blue that Sabo’s eyes had been, now could only picture that furious red.

“You broke it!” Holly hopped in place, smiling so brightly that it almost distracted him. Her joy was as infectious as Luffy’s, her presence was almost as good as his; that joy, the way Holly was able to make him relax despite all his hesitation to trust her and everything happening.

_“Cursed blood. Demon child-”_

_“-All your fault-”_

“Oh, Ace!” Holly suddenly crawled from her spot and hurled herself at him. Ace sucked in a sharp breath as she collided with his chest and wrapped her arms firmly around his neck. In his ear, she gave a squeal as she basked in the joy she was feeling.

Ace was no child in need of a hug, and even as a child, he hadn’t asked for one after learning young that the bandits did not offer such comforts even to toddlers. Regardless, Ace wasn’t a child, he didn’t need a hug. And yet... Holly’s arms still wrapped around him, her body pressed itself to his, and he quickly noticed that with her head at his neck, she couldn’t see his face. Hesitating a moment, Ace sat there while she clung, before he slowly lifted his arms and wrapped them around Holly’s smaller form. Then he breathed. She was so happy that he’d broken that locket, she was hugging him out of excitement, she’d been the one to do it. Ace hadn’t asked for it, and that mattered somehow.

His eyes clamped shut as they burned, and Ace held in the hiccuping noise that badly wanted to escape. Fingers flexing on Holly’s back, Ace allowed himself to be held and felt an inaudible sob escape. ‘Cursed blood,’ ‘demon child,’ countless told him he didn’t deserve to live while his own thoughts wrote in what was missing. It was his own mind that decided it was his fault Thatch was dead, that Sabo was dead. But it was lies. It was the lies of some monstrous spirit reading his memories and insecurities, it was that snake-faced bastard’s actions. Marco, Pops, Izo, and Luffy would never say such things, Sabo and Thatch wouldn’t; they were his family.

It was lies and maybe if he kept telling himself that he’d actually believe it.

“It’s broken! Snake-face’s locket!” Holly happily proclaimed, squeezing him with all her might, “that damned thing has been telling me nonsense for months! And now it’s broken all thanks to you, Ace!” A shuddering breath escaped his lips, and his whole body shook as he clung to Holly, praying she didn’t try to pull back. Not yet, he wasn’t ready yet. She couldn’t see, no one could.

Holly stilled slightly when she felt Ace shake, when she felt his body shudder while they were pressed together. Her joy, her relief had calmed, and realization returned. The words Voldemort told Ace, the people he’d used, it had to be a painful blow, even disregarding that Ace was only present in spirit. The situation got so much worse when she remembered that Voldemort had attacked his soul. Ace was not okay, he couldn’t be. Holly doubted anyone could be after Voldemort attacked them mentally like that.

Ace shook again, his fingers flexing on her waist, and Holly closed her eyes. She tightened her grip subtly on Ace’s body and made herself comfortable by stretching out her legs, so she was directly in his lap chest to chest. Holly tried then to remember what Ron and Hermione had told her when they’d been eleven, and they’d surprised her with a hug. They’d been so relieved she’d been okay after Quirrel-mort’s attack, and Holly hadn’t been anywhere near used to physical contact, even after the year of Ron’s casual touching. She’d flinched unable to help herself, and Ron had decided right then he’d hug her as much as possible to get her used to it. Holly would say he accomplished his mission by the time her second year was over, and he tackled her after they’d saved Ginny.

_“Hugging releases oxytocin, which lowers our heart rate and our cortisol levels. C_ _ortisol is the hormone responsible for stress… so, therefore, accept our hugs, Holly!”_

_“Hermione! Don’t get all technical, it’s just nice to hug!”_

_“What? It’s interesting, hugging is scientifically proven to help reduce stress!”_

_“In Circe’s name ‘Mione.”_

Holly closed her eyes and lowered her chin onto Ace’s shoulder, pretending she didn’t notice the way his body shook. She held Ace and allowed her body to relax now that she was finally free of the locket’s constant whispering. Voldemort's hissing voice had been going on endlessly about her demise, about all the people planning to betray her. About how Ace was probably going to murder her in her sleep. Holly shook her head slightly, she felt like a moron. Of course, Ace wasn’t going to do that, he’d proven himself to her a dozen times over. She could trust him.

Moving slowly, Holly leaned her head against Ace’s. She felt her heart lighten, and her mind wander as if chains had been removed from her heart and head. Her eyes wandered along Ace’s body, he was still shirtless, and his skin wasn’t black- wait a second! Holly pulled back slightly, stopping the motion just as quickly as Ace clutched her waist to stop her pulling away, she allowed him to and focused on the skin on his shoulder. Reaching up, Holly ran a finger along his shoulder and felt his skin, his real, normal skin. She could touch it, how could she touch it? Ace and whatever was holding him here should have been weaker with that attack, not stronger. Unless. Had something happened to his body? Had he ended up physically present- no, no, his waist was see-through.

Holly shifted slightly and reached her hand down to touch, and her palm went straight through his body. Confusion tripled as Ace finally allowed her to pull back and not a moment too soon as Holly was abruptly dumped onto the floor right through his body.

“Oof!” Holly winced, lifting her head automatically, and caught a glimpse of a woman with pink hair and a face full of freckles with her hand raised over Ace’s shoulder, before she vanished like the wind. Holly blinked several times, wondering if she’d imagined it.

“Alright?” Ace asked his voice completely even. Holly was quickly suspicious that anything had actually been wrong with how quickly he recovered, but then she seemed to be similar to Ace in the emotional range. She was fine until she wasn’t, then it was an explosion and then she was fine again.

“Yup,” Holly scooted backward, so she wasn’t sitting literally inside his lap. The motion caused a bit of glass to dig in, and Holly hissed unhappily. With a wave of her hand, the locket pieces collected and dumped into the nearby trash-bin; that was the best that damned thing deserved, a Muggle trash lot. “More than alright, really, I’m great!”

“Because I broke your locket?” his brow arched, and Holly knew it was finally time she told him about the Horcruxes. Holly no longer had any tie to the excuses she’d been holding onto since Ace arrived, he was clearly not an agent of Voldemort’s considered he’d already destroyed a Horcrux and had saved her from the man himself. While the last holdout, the one that spoke in Dumbledore’s voice and said she shouldn’t trust anyone with this truth, had lost its weight. Dumbledore hadn’t told anyone about Horcruxes and look where they got them, back into an endless civil war. Holly disregarded the idea of Pettigrew and a traitor, Ace wasn’t that.

“It was a Horcrux.” Holly curled her legs under her prepared to have one of the more critical conversations she’d had in a great long while… in a bathroom. Funny how that kept happening.

“A what?” his head cocked to the side, his lips pressed together, giving him an altogether comical look. Holly chuckled softly, trust Ace to make the heavy topic lighter. He’d probably think nothing of the problem, and considering he’d just destroyed the locket with his bare hands, she wouldn’t be surprised if he did.

“A Horcrux, it’s an item in which a witch or wizard has placed part of their soul. Its a tether to the earth; it keeps someone alive even if they die, and so long as one exists, you can’t die.” Holly watched Ace’s expression shift, and the realization hit almost instantly. Ace was intelligent, she didn’t need to explain any further for him to get it, and without her needing to, Ace jumped to the right conclusion.

“Snake-face made them, how many?” Ace knew it had to be more than one, there was no way a man like that would stop at one tether to the world.

“Seven.” Holly’s hand twitched as she stopped herself from rubbing her scar, Ace didn’t need to know about that. Yes, she trusted him, but he didn’t need to know her fate. Holly would spare Ace of that information, and he’d return to his life free and alive and thinking she’d lived a long, happy life in return. “The locket was one of them, my headmaster destroyed another last year, and I destroyed one in my second year.”

His brows pinched, then clarity shone: “… ah, the diary.”

“Exactly so.”

Ace tapped the floor, and Holly noted his hand was see-through now, worry slipped into her heart seeing that. If she was right and someone, that woman maybe, was sending Ace to her using magic than Voldemort’s attack would have affected her too. It likely meant that however long Ace had with her had been drastically cut down. The proof was in the way his body was steadily becoming see-through, one body part at a time.

Would this mean Ace wouldn’t be able to stay with Holly? What if his time was out?

If that were the case, Holly would be alone again without a way to destroy the Horcruxes. Thanks to Ace, she was better off, she did have a hint of where to get information of the Horcruxes, Bellatrix was her prisoner, and Holly would do what it took to get information from the woman. She’d be okay, but Ace… if he was pulled back to prison where Marines were preparing to execute him. He could be killed, Merlin, Holly didn’t even know how long until Ace’s execution there was, it could be seconds away!

“Why didn’t you destroy the locket if you had it all this time?” Ace said, tapping his hand to his chin, not noticing it was see-through yet.

“What?” Holly snapped back to attention, and Ace sighed repeating his question calmly. “Oh,” Holly managed, “that’s because while Dumbledore did tell me about the Horcruxes, he didn’t tell me how to destroy them.”

“That's suspicious.” Ace immediately figured, he might be paranoid in general, but it honestly was. If the war was hinging on this and Dumbledore had actually destroyed them, the number of potential Horcruxes, and how to destroy them would be the first thing he’d tell someone. Unless Holly knew something different?

“Suspicious? Well… I don’t know, he didn’t exactly have the… time…” she trailed off frowning, “actually he sort of did, he spent all of last year showing me memories of potential Horcruxes and snake-faces history and when we did learn snake-face made them there was still a month before he died.”

“And he destroyed one that very year, so he knew how to do it,” Ace placed a hand on his hip nudging the point, “yet he didn’t tell you how to do it? I’ll repeat it: suspicious.”

“He…” Holly bit her lip. Dumbledore hadn’t told her a lot of things, he hadn’t told her about what she was until he’d been poisoned by Voldemort’s guilt-inducing potion. Holly hadn’t honestly wondered since then if Dumbledore had ever intended to tell her the truth at all, but now she was. Would she have gone the entire Horcrux hunt clueless? Would she have defeated Voldemort, unaware that she was still tying Voldemort to life? Or had Dumbledore told someone who’d-

_“Severus… please…”_

“No,” She gasped, no way, nope, she was jumping to crazy conclusions. She was mad.

Ace, mistaking her ‘no’ for answering his question, huffed: “Not helpful was he? Whatever. We know how to destroy it now. I’ll just break the others like...” He flexed his hand and finally caught sight of its state. Alarm raced through him when Ace realized he couldn’t use his Haki, the very thing he’d used to destroy the Horcrux in the first place. Armament Haki, it had to be since Ace had been actively holding the damned thing when he’d shattered it. Conquerors could be possible, but Ace had little control of his conquerors Haki, so armament was more likely… which he now couldn’t use. “Shit.”

“Shit?” Holly demanded.

Ace quickly rearranged his plans while hesitatingly saying: “I can’t use Haki… whatever that locket did… my Haki is gone.” Which meant he couldn’t touch anything.

“No, I think that’s temporary.” Ace snapped his head toward her demanding with his expression for her to explain, and Holly quickly did so. “That attack must have drained your energy and the energy of the person keeping you here. They must have been weakened, which is why you are see-through. If they regain energy, or you do, then it should be fine.” Holly nodded along to her theory, she was most likely correct, it felt right to her. “My bigger worry is actually your execution, we never discussed it. When are they going to do it?”

“So I need to eat? You thought that helped right? Good thing I made… the food!” he launched off to the floor and sprinted from the room, leaving Holly in the dust. She blinked after him, then huffed, stood, and followed. She had been wondering about that smell.

Entering the kitchen after Ace, who was helplessly trying to get food out of the oven, which he couldn’t touch. Holly waved a hand, causing the door to open, and the large rack of deer meat flew out and onto a plate. “How do you intend to eat when you can’t touch the food,” Holly partly teased as Ace bemoaned the slightly crispy skin. “And can you answer my question, please? When are you going to be executed?” She had two plans for solving Ace’s imprisonment, but she had yet to find the proper spell to accomplish them, and she wasn’t sure Ace would go for one considering what it involved.

Ace grabbed at the meat, and his hand went straight through it, “No idea, I’ve been here for what… two weeks?” Holly nodded since that was a generally accurate guess. “My execution will probably be a… larger than normal event, so the Marines will be expecting a fight. They’ll need to prepare and move me to Marineford before it happens. I’d guess…” he stopped grabbing for the meat as he really thought about when he was going to die. About the moment he’d be up on that platform, the second that two swords would slice through his body and his life just… stopped.

He was going to die.

“Ace?”

“A couple days,” Ace choked out, “by this point, they’ll probably move me soon. And if I can’t regain my Haki, I can’t help you win your war. You’ll have to figure out how to use Haki yourself, because I’ll be gone.”

‘Gone?’ panicked anger hit her, and Holly stomped forward and growled as she stared up at Ace. She got as close as possible without being able to touch him. “Don’t you dare say that! How could you- you aren’t going to- you stupid- AH!” she stomped her foot, unable to articulate her thoughts. Holly physically shook her head and stepped back, ignoring how much of a hypocrite she was that she was getting upset that Ace was convinced he was going to die.

“We’ll just have to solve your imprisonment first, then you’ll be free to teach me Haki, and then we can find the other Horcruxes.” There, that was coherent enough.

“Holly… I’m in another world, I’m in a prison that is considered inescapable guarded by a jailer that can kill you with a single touch.” Holly jerked, that was the first she’d heard of it. Then again, Ace had told Holly very little about his world or himself over the time he’d been around her. Which… why was he telling her now? Did he trust her now? “I’m on the lowest level, and when they do finally move me, I’ll be guarded by thousands of Marines, many of which make Vold- Snakeface look like a chump. Holly, I hate to say this… but I’m a dead man walking, I always have been.”

Holly shook her head in denial. No, there had to be a way to save Ace, there had to be! “Then why agree to the deal!? Why agree to work with me if you didn’t think I could handle it?”

Ace lifted his fingers feeling oddly calm while Holly was freaking out: “first, because I didn’t know your capabilities. Secondly, because I am trapped with you-” Holly sucked in a breath feeling a rush of betrayal that stung her heart, “-and thirdly, I wanted to help you, and you’re stubborn.”

Her spine straightened ready to defend herself, ready to say something, anything in her abrupt anger: “Well you can just-”

“And,” Ace spoke loudly over her, “now I know you can’t handle it. Now I know you, and I can say you’re probably one of the best people I could have been trapped with for the last weeks of my life. And I still want to help you, we can fix your war even if we can’t fix my fate.”

Except they couldn’t because she was going to die just like Ace was. But he didn’t know that, and she wasn’t going to tell him. She couldn’t. “Great sentiment Ace, but it’s bullshit. I’m saving you whether you think I can or not.” This would not be Sirius all over again; it wouldn’t be Moody or Hedwig; Ace was absolutely not going to die. That woman had chosen Holly for a reason, and Holly wasn’t going to disappoint; she could handle it, otherwise she never would have been selected.

“Holly… I don’t think you understand how strong these people are.” Ace pressed as she spun on a heel and marched toward her bookshelf. She was stubborn as he’d said, and he really should have lied about his estimated time left. Now she was going to focus on his problem, and not her own when she had a prisoner, and three more Horcruxes to find - assuming the last was Voldemort himself. Holly should be focusing on that and more specifically, learning Haki because it was the only way they knew of to destroy the Horcruxes. However, the time he had left wasn’t enough for her to learn, it would take months… months he didn’t have.

Maybe she had the right idea? If he was free, then he could physically help her and could train her to use Haki- but no, he wasn’t kidding that she was out of her league. The Marines would have the best guarding him, people that could run circles around Ace they’d be faster than light to Holly and would see her spells a mile away. She couldn’t save him even if she found a way into his world.

“I thought I could apparate right to your location, but I don’t know if I can do that across worlds,” Holly said pulling out books, “then I thought I could swap my spirit with yours, and use my magic to break you out and apparate to safety. But I’ll need a location to escape to, which requires reading your mind. If I can use magic in your body at all.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Yeah, I didn’t think you’d like that; most people don’t.” She thought it was the mind-reading that was the problem, she had no idea that it was something entirely different for Ace. It was Magellan, Impel down, and the chains around his entire body keeping him completely immobile. Ace had seen Holly apparate, she had to be able to move to do it, and he physically couldn’t. She’d get herself killed, Holly was going to get herself killed.

“So I’ll just have to find a way to travel worlds, this would be so much easier with Hermione.”

How could he make her understand? If Ace had Haki he’d show her just how much he’d been holding back against her, that even without his flames, he could defeat her. She had no idea the scope of what he was facing or how determined the Marines would be to keep him, to kill him. She didn’t know whose child he was, and as ridiculous as sounded to him… even if he told her, Holly wouldn’t get it. She wouldn’t care who Roger was, wouldn’t care that he was Roger’s son.

She would perhaps be one of the very few that didn’t care and the only one who wouldn’t even blink over it.

When had that become a bad thing?

Ace hesitated as Holly tossed books over her shoulder, hunting for something specific. He was warmed by her determination, by the fact that no matter what she’d heard from Voldemort’s shade, she still wanted to save him. But Holly didn’t know the truth, and perhaps it was time for him to tell her just why the Marines were so determined to kill him. Just like she’d told him about the Horcruxes. “Holly-”

“Just, just let me do this Ace,” Holly kept her eyes on the titles, “you need to live okay? Because… because it’s you and… I might actually be falling…” she turned, mouth open and found herself in an empty room. Ace was gone.

 

* * *

 

  
Rouge panted with her back pressed to the wall of the tent. Nearby Sirius watched as Holly and Ace spoke, and he kept careful watch of them and their mental state. They’d both taken a blow, several in fact, and there were far more upcoming. Thankfully they’d found a brief moment of peace only to fill it with deep conversation. Damn, the kids couldn’t catch a break, could they?

When Rouge finally caught her breath, Sirius turned his attention to her. “That was all your energy Rouge… are you sure you wanted to use it like that?”

Rouge recovering but feeling weaker than she ever had before, nodded. She’d seen Ace fading after Voldemort’s spirit attacked Lily directly through the connection she had with Ace. She’d had seen Lily’s energy wrenched from her and had noticed that it was quickly affecting her son, who would not be able to use Haki, which required that very same energy. Rouge had also seen how emotionally struck Ace was by the attack. She had watched over her son all his life, she knew precisely what Ace acted and looked like when he was agitated, and she’d never seen him that broken down before.

Those words put in the mouths of the people Ace actually trusted, it had been needlessly cruel and a direct attack. It was no surprise Ace had only fought back when the moronic wizard had tried to use Luffy of all people against him. It was almost a blessing that Voldemort had tried it; Luffy was the one person Ace trusted the most, and Rogue knew Luffy would never turn on his brother like that, as much as Ace did it seemed. Still, even if the attack ended, Ace had been affected and had needed comfort, even if he didn’t want to recognize that need.

“I’m sure,” She told Sirius, “Ace needed it more than we probably realize.”

Holly Potter was right for her son, she read his needs effortlessly and unconsciously. She had known Ace needed comfort and had realized quickly that Ace would never ask for it. So despite basking in her joy of the destruction of a Horcrux as Sirius had been doing, Holly had still kept in mind Ace’s needs enough to subtly allow him to accept the help he needed. At the same time, Rouge had ensured the hug Holly offered could actually be felt.

It was worth it. Even if Rouge had no energy to speak of anymore.

She just hoped that energy wasn’t needed later, especially with how drained Lily now was.

“We should check on Lily,” Sirius mumbled, watching the pair finally break down and confess a few truths. It was about time Holly mentioned the Horcruxes to Ace even if she was still holding back the truth of her fate.

“Right…” Rouge took a step back and allowed herself to slip along the connection Lily had with her son. In a moment, she found herself standing back in the darkness of Impel down. It was a jarring change after the warmth and bright colors of the magical tent Holly currently made her home. Sirius was a split second behind her and stopped to find Lily’s form flickering as she kept her hands forcefully on Ace’s head. Neither Ace nor Lily looked good. Lily’s very soul had taken damage from Voldemort’s attack, and it was showing on her body, which should have been never changing. While Ace… while the physical didn’t show on Ace’s spirit, it did on his body.

Little bloodied gashes raced up her son's body like someone had squeezed the life out of him. The countless little cuts bled out inky black blood, a result of the malice Voldemort had been putting out. Ace thankfully didn’t seem to notice the damage at the moment, but that was explainable by the fact that his spirit was still with Holly so he wouldn’t. Still, Rouge couldn’t help but cringe upon seeing it. Ace would be in a great deal of pain when he returned to his body, and going off Lily’s state that would be soon.

“Lils… you need to stop.” James urged, giving them both a concerned look, he had no idea what happened to cause this, and he wanted to.

“I… I can’t,” Lily’s hands shook, “they’re not ready, Ace hasn’t told her how to find him… and Holly still thinks she needs to… to die.” Lily sobbed out a breath, and James hissed.

“Lily, you are out of energy, you’ll going to be using up your soul soon. Let me finish this. I can handle it with what I have left.”

“Time will close in on them!” Lily snapped, knowing the spell she’d designed made it so time moved faster on Holly’s side than Ace’s. It gave them more time to bond.

“It will anyway, Lily,” James placed his hands on hers, “you’re too weak to keep the spell going.”

“You have to let go anyway,” Sirius added from the doorway, “the guards are coming.”

The three of them snapped their attention to the doors, and Lily hurriedly released Ace’s forehead with a gasp. Ace immediately choked as he was yanked back into his body, his mouth open to say something. In that split-second Lily stared down at him, Ace looked up at her, and their eyes met for the briefest moment. Then a clang sounded, and they both snapped back to attention.

“He saw me,” Lily breathed, “he looked right at me…”

“Shit.” Ace swore as the pain of the cuts registered, his muscles were rigid, more so than it already was, as one of his eyes closed as his body braced itself. Voices echoed down the path, people were coming, and Ace didn’t have time to dwell on what was happening to his body because of it.

“I believe Holly saw me as well,” Rouge confessed, “after I released Ace, she looked right into my eyes… though it’s doubtful she knows who I am.” Ace wouldn’t have mentioned her, Rouge knew that much. But it was possible Holly would ask, considering she was already curious enough. Rouge hoped so, she wanted Ace to know that he still had a mother had loved him, even if she was nothing more than a ghost.

“They’re coming,” Sirius announced, sticking his head out of the cell door and looking down where they couldn’t see. He ignored James kissing Lily and praising her efforts before they both took position behind Ace to send him back to Holly when these Marines were gone. “Big group and a… err, not actually sure what that is.”

“That?” Rouge left her son's side as Ace shoved back any expression of pain to glare balefully at the door. He was prepared for what the Marines had for him, or so he told himself. Ace was expecting his escort, already acknowledging the fact that he’d likely guessed wrong. His ‘few days’ was actually right then. Right that moment, before he’d told Holly anything substantial, before she figured out how to get to his world, before she learned Haki.

They’d run out of time, and he- shit, he’d never even taken the chance to kiss her.

“That.” Rouge repeated as she realized what was happening, and she smiled, “that, is a he, and that… that is a good thing.”

“It- err- he is?” Sirius asked, glancing at Rouge just as the Marines stopped in front of Ace’s cell with their newest prisoner between them.

“Jimbe.” Ace breathed as the Fishman straightened proudly, even as the Marines snapped at Ace to put his back to the cell wall away from the door. Ace scoffed at them: “Like I can put it anywhere else.” One of the Marines retaliated fiercely, and his fist cracked against Ace’s cheek. Ready for precisely that, Ace narrowly avoided biting down on his tongue. He allowed his face to roll with the punch before lifting his head again. Ace spat the blood that collected in his mouth at the Marines ‘pristine’ clothing and earned another strike for it.

For a moment, Ace wondered how Holly would react to that and felt his heart lighten slightly because he could already picture her fury.

“Tell me you didn’t do that shit in Azkaban Padfoot?” James asked as Ace snarled like a dog at the Marines who finished chaining up the huge blue man.

“Eh, not that exactly. The guards didn’t really interact, but I did spit at a dementor once… in retrospect, it was a mistake, but it felt good at the time.”

“Men,” Rouge rolled her eyes, she would bet all her galleons that Roger had done exactly the same thing at one point just to mess with the guards.

“So, Rouge, who is this?” Lily put the question forth as the Marines backed off, taunting Jimbe.

“That is Jimbe; he’s an ally to the Whitebeard Pirates, and one Ace considers a friend.” Rouge was losing track of what was happening in her own world with how focused she’d been on Ace and Holly working together. So she didn’t know why Jimbe was present, but she could guess going off the information she did have. “It's likely he protested starting a war with Whitebeard, which resulted in his arrest.”

“But if he’s a pirate, then why would protesting get him arrested?”

“Because Jimbe is a Shichibukai.”

“A what?” echoed three confused voices.

“What’s happening?” Ace cut to the chase with his friend, “why are you here?”

Jimbe heaved a breath as the Marines left his hearing range and answered to the best of his ability, “The marines announced your execution publicly, they intend to start a war… they are tempting fate. They know well that your family will never sit around while you are executed, they want this to happen.”

Ace guessed as much, he knew if it were any of his siblings, if any of them were to be executed publicly than he’d never hesitate to rush to their defense. It shouldn’t be a surprise the crew would do precisely that for him, yet it was. Because he had purposely gone against his father's orders, he’d intentionally left to hunt down Teach. Teach who had been part of his division, who Ace should have noticed, should have stopped.

“They don’t blame you for this Ace,” Jimbe stated as firmly as he could, “this is on Teach. It is his fault, his and the Marines.”

“Sure.” Ace mumbled half-heartedly. But there was still going to be a war. Becaus he’d let his guard down around Teach, because he’d left, because Ace hadn’t noticed, because he’d underestimated his opponent members of the crew would die and their deaths would be his fault. “Why are you here?”

“I refused to join the slaughter… I refuse to be a part of it.”

Not a surprise either, Jimbe had his crew and his island to think about. He was torn between his people and his ideals. Ace got it, and in another universe, he’d be glad for the friendly company until his last day. But in this case… in this case, he had different priorities and a different focus. He was hardly conscious in his cell anymore and was honestly thankful for it. And now that he was thinking about it, Jimbe was perhaps the perfect person to ask the question burning a hole in his lungs.

“Is there a Marine that can create worlds? Or trick you into thinking you're in a completely different one. You’d know… wouldn’t you?” Jimbe frowned at the sudden jump when Ace added quickly: “It could be someone with red hair? And… really bright green eyes.” Eyes like Holly’s, a nose like Holly’s. A woman who looked just like Holly, who’d want him to save her, help her… a woman that was probably her mother, which would explain quite a bit.

“No,” Jimbe answered, “to my knowledge, no Marine has that ability. The closest I can think of is in Big Mom’s crew. Why do you ask?”

Ace exhaled as the slices across his skin throbbed, as the chill in his bones grew, and yet he felt relief. “Because some dead woman is sending my spirit to her daughter, all so I can save her daughter's life before mine ends. And I wanted to be sure she’s not a fever dream that some Marine bitch is showing me,” The tension fled his shoulders, and his expression softened without his knowledge causing Jimbe’s eyes to fly wide. “I wanted to be sure because I think I might be falling for the moron, which is probably some shit timing on my part.”

Jimbe blinked at him, his mouth opening and closing in shock. He had no idea what to say to that while Ace felt his lips quirk upward as he felt the sensation of something a bit firmer than he was used to brushing across his forehead. It seems he wasn’t done yet, he was glad.

“So don’t be surprised when I fall into a coma, I gotta solve her issue quickly. Guessing I don’t have long before this war starts.”

“You are scheduled for execution in four days. But Ace, you aren’t making any sense.”

Ace shrugged to the best of his ability, Jimbe would figure it out or he wouldn’t, Ace didn’t have the time to explain. Hands yanked on his consciousness, and the cell vanished.

Ace staggered forward, able to move once more. A quick glance down revealed his spirit had retained the bloodied marks across his body, and he knew Holly would ask about them. But first… black raced up his hand, and Ace straightened his spine. He had his Haki again, but for how long he didn’t know, so he had to take advantage of it.

Striding forward Ace noted the books cast in every direction, Holly seemed to have abandoned the shelf and the room itself when he’d been talking to Jimbe. Taking advantage of the time alone, and well aware she had to be nearby, Ace quickly yanked a book from the shelf at random. Opening it to the inside cover, Ace snatched up a nearby pen and promptly started to write as clear of an explanation as he could. A step by step method to learning armament Haki so that if the Marines came early, if he died, then Holly could find it and could finish destroying the Horcruxes without him. She was always going through the books, he knew she’d see what he’d written eventually and thought it would take months for her to get the basics, Holly would do it. Ace knew she would.

With that done, he snapped the book closed and replaced it. Then he returned the pen to its rightful spot and allowed his Haki to fade. There, one task done. Now he just had to interrogate the banshee, so Holly didn’t have to, then, unfortunately, he’d likely have to kill her. Once she knew what they wanted, she couldn’t be allowed to escape. If she found out they were hunting for Voldemort’s ties to life, he’d take measures to ensure they couldn’t destroy them all. So no, Voldemort couldn’t be allowed to discover the truth, ever.

“Ace!” Ace turned away from the shelf and found Holly staring at him in palpable relief. His heart skipped a beat when he saw her, and he relaxed entirely. She wasn’t a trick; she was a real woman. “Bloody hell! I thought the Marines were going to kill you! You’ve never vanished completely before.” She rushed forward, forgetting that he shouldn’t be touchable at all, and embraced him. Ace used his haki to ensure she didn’t fall right through his body, taking a moment to hold her even if he likely didn’t have much to use.

Dismissively Ace flapped his free hand: “Nah, just a couple guards giving me a new bunk-mate…” he trailed off as Holly tightened her grip, as she leaned back, her eyes flicking to between his eyes and his lips in a debate. He held his breath, wondering if she’d do it; if she did, he wouldn’t protest. Holly’s eyes met hers, and he saw a glitter there, mischief perhaps? Would she actually…?

But she didn’t. Holly abruptly pulled back: “A bunk-mate?” Holly noted the black where she’d been holding him and swatted at him playfully relieved to see it. “Don’t do that again!”

“Not like I can help it.” He had four days, but Holly did not need to know that. This was his perfect chance to turn her off her plan to risk her life to save his. Ace could tell her about Jimbe, he could say to her that he had much longer than the four days he honestly had. He just had to lie. “He's an ally to my father, an ally to my crew. And apparently, the Marines intend to use me as an example due to the power of my crew, of my father.”

Holly’s eyes narrowed in suspicious fury, these Marines sounded worse and worse with each mention, not to mention the wounds Ace kept gaining every time he vanished and came back. “What does that mean?”

“I have time, their whole plot… they intend to make my execution public, and when I’m being moved, is the best time to be rescued.” He swallowed shoving back the truth, shoving back the tremor threatening to give him away, “they’ll move me two weeks from now. We have until then to find a way to escape, or for you to steal me from them.”

“Why does that time work when the others don’t?” she was still suspicious, and Ace did his best to placate her.

“The strongest will be at the actual execution sight, the Marines won’t expect rescue when I’m being transported because the path between the prison and the execution sight is one of the most secure Marine locations in the world due to the current.” Ace grabbed for a scrap paper and quickly drew out the current between the three central locations of Marineford, Impel Down, and Enies Lobby. “Each one of these locations has a marine controlled door, and it’s the only way to escape the current. When moving me from Impel down to Marineford, I’ll be on this current.”

“Oh, got it,” Holly tapped his drawing, “with magic I can fly so the current won’t affect me. So I can grab you and escape, and the lower level of security won’t be able to stop me.”

“Exactly.” Ace watched her steal the drawing and pocket it, he watched her mind turning and tried to relax. It was actually a feasible plan… one his family likely wouldn’t go with due to the challenge the Marines had put to them. Should he- no, who knew who would actually escort him. It could very well be someone like Akainu or Magellan, and those men would murder her on sight for trying to help him.

“So I need to find a way to travel between worlds, find this current… and get a second broom. I wonder if you can fly one? Something to test.”

“And in the mean-time, we find the three Horcruxes unaccounted for and interrogate the Banshee.” He finished.

“She’ll probably know where one is… then the snake is probably one, Nagini, his pet.”

“Living things can be one?” Ace was surprised to hear that. Holly implied otherwise.

She nodded to his question but didn’t elaborate: “I should show you what Hermione guessed. See, the locket is a Slytherin item… so it’s part of the school, which was his first real home. All the items we do know of is of sentimental value.”

“Stupid, I’d have picked a random rock on the beach.”

“That’s what Ron said!” Holly laughed, “but Snake-face is oddly sentimental for a terrorist. Anyway, we guessed the other items were also involved with the school, especially after Dumbledore showed me a memory of him going after Helga Hufflepuff’s cup.” Holly went for the bookshelf, and Ace felt his heart leap into his chest when she went close to the book he’d written in. By some miracle, however, she didn’t grab it and instead pulled out another. This she opened and showed him a random page.

“The Locket of Slytherin’s wife, the cup of Helga Hufflepuff, and the Diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw… thought missing for centuries, but he very well could have found it.” She tapped the picture showing him what the items looked like, “I think the diadem and the cup are the two other Horcruxes, I’ll know for sure, depending on what Bellatrix tells us.”

“So the pet snake, the cup, and this crown.” Ace snorted, this was a treasure hunt, and the woman that resembled Holly had selected him, a pirate, to help her with it. It was like he was destined to do this, find some treasure, and save the girl. “Then Voldemort himself?”

Holly’s face twitched “…right. Cup, crown, then snake… then we can kill Voldemort and save you. All in two weeks.”

“Better get started then.” Four days, three items, and the big guy. He could do it. “Ready to interrogate the banshee?”

“Ready.” Ace turned his back to Holly and started toward the back room while Holly hesitated a moment, just a moment to lift her hand to her forehead and felt a rush of regret.

She trusted Ace, she believed now that he was genuinely going to help her and she… she liked him. This was beyond her temporary crushes on the boys at her school, it was so much more intense with Ace. Holly truly liked him, she wanted to know him better, wanted to spend every quiet moment at his side; she wanted nothing more than to take him by the shoulders and finally give in to that building desire in her gut. Holly wanted to kiss him, to feel his touch. She wanted to… bloody hell, she wanted to date him, wanted a relationship. Holly wanted it all and wanted so much longer than what either of them had.

She had been ready to do it just then. When Ace reappeared alive, she hadn’t even thought to resist it. She’d been about to press their lips together regardless of all her hesitation. But then she’d caught his eyes and had just… done it. Maybe it was a whim or some instinctual part of her that demanded she do it. Holly had caught his eyes and… she’d looked. Holly honestly couldn’t judge him; she was lying, so it wasn’t a surprise Ace was all well for her own good. And lying he was.

Four days.

Ace had four days to live. She had four days to solve that problem, and everyone else could screw off until she’d done it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so fair warning; I fully intend to do Nanowrimo this year, so the next month could be a bit short on the updates department. I am going to be writing 50k words worth of my One Piece Big Bang which I also signed up for and am quite excited for. I'll do my best to update these fics if I have the time, but honestly, I don't know if I will. Feel free to offer up some encouraging (and perhaps pleading?) comments so I can live off them. 
> 
> Question of the month: What are you guys going to dress up as for Halloween?


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